


Our Own House

by Fangirl_InThe_US



Category: The Last of Us (Video Games)
Genre: ???? - Freeform, Angst, Blood and Gore, Canon-Typical Violence, Character Death, F/M, Fluff, Joel (The Last of Us) Lives, Major character death - Freeform, Mentions of Rape, Possible smut, Romance, Self-Indulgent, Swearing, Violence, iDK tho
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-18
Updated: 2020-09-21
Packaged: 2021-03-06 12:13:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 45,230
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25969468
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fangirl_InThe_US/pseuds/Fangirl_InThe_US
Summary: At thirteen you're thrown into the apocalypse with your classmate, Tess. Flash forward twenty years, you end up adopting and raising a kid only for her to get bit. You two end up traveling across the country with a grumpy old man to figure out why your daughter is immune.
Relationships: Joel (The Last of Us)/Reader, Joel/Reader
Comments: 2
Kudos: 46





	1. (Prologue)

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, wow. This took me forever! I want to note that this is 100% self indulgent. I write this to help me cope and get over a lot of unhealthy attachments. I hope you like it. Let me know what y’all think!

September 2013

I was lost. I didn’t know what was going on. I was a lost little sheep. Looking around me, I could see the whole bus full of students was just as confused. Sitting on the leather seat of our school bus, I was in total panic mode. Out of nowhere, I was flung into the back of the seat in front of me.

The bus had stopped. It was for good reason. A boy, who I was pretty sure was a junior, attacked one of the freshmen in my class. I watched how the freshman’s throat was ripped out by the junior’s teeth. I hadn’t ever witnessed such a gory sight. Not even in my video games or television shows.

I was a normal fourteen-year-old girl before all this horrifying shit. I was a brand new freshman who just wanted to get by in life. Now here I was traumatized. I wouldn’t ever get the sight of the freshman being attacked out of my head. Or how much of the thick red blood spewed out of him. Before I knew it, there were crazy people slamming their bodies into the door of the bus. They had the same ravenous look in their eyes. I was terrified for my life.

Suddenly, there was a hand gripping my shoulder. Following the arm to its owner, my eyes landed on another junior. She had dark brown, shoulder-length hair and hazel eyes. Her eyes held the same fear-stricken look.

“Follow me if you want to live.” After the girl spoke, she tightened her grip on my arm and led me out of the emergency exit in the back. I followed her for what felt like ages. 

Before we even left the bus, I had made sure that I had grabbed my backpack. It was filled with an extra change of clothes and a bunch of random notebooks. Nothing too important. Nothing that could really help against those hunger-induced people.

At some point, the junior had stopped. We took a minute to catch our breath. As I took deep breaths, I thought over the series of unfortunate events. This caused pressure to flair up in my chest. My breath quickened and I was thrown into a panic attack. What was going to happen to me?

“Hey, you still with me?” The junior had leaned down and placed a calming hand on my shoulder.

Looking up at the girl, I nodded. She flashed me a smile. After being reassured that I was okay, she assessed where we currently were.

“Okay, we’re still stuck downtown. We need to get out of the city.”

“Why’s that?” I questioned.

“Why’s-” She chuckled, “Do you have any idea what is happening right now? Did you see what that junior did to that freshman?”

“But-but…. Oh, my gosh.” I stood there, appalled. “I always thought I would be home when the apocalypse hit. My dad has guns. I would be protected.” I scoffed. “Of course, this had to happen when I didn’t have that kind of security!”

“As much as I know you need this moment, I need you to calm down. If you can recall, these things typically are attracted to sound. You’re not exactly being quiet.”

“Sorry,” I whispered while flashing her an apologetic smile.

The girl sighed. “No, it-it’s fine. Just try being a little quieter.”

“I can do that. No problem.”

“The name’s Tess.” 

“Y/n.”

x_x

It wasn’t easy, but we made it out of Chicago. I had a few panic attacks which made Tess drag my ass to safety. I had no clue as to what the fuck we would do. Home was all the way in Iowa.

“How are we going to get back to Iowa? You saw the roads!” My mind was reeling.

“We’re not going back to Iowa. We’re gonna sit it out and see where to go from there. If everything figures itself out, then we can find a way to get back-”

“If not? Then what?”

“We’ll look for a safe place. The military has to have some kind of plan for this kind of shit.”

Her comment shut me up. We may never find our way back home. I knew Tess wasn’t too bothered with it, though. There was a rumor going around school that she was planning on leaving to go back to her home in Boston. Supposedly, she planned on living there with her aunt and uncle.

x_x

A few days passed. Tess and I had found a place to stay. All we had been doing was scavenging for supplies and listening to what the authorities had to say on the radio. There really wasn’t much besides directions for us to find our local quarantine zone. We never followed them. Tess claimed that it would be a nightmare. She said that they would take away our freedoms. Also that the place would be filled with people who were infected.

After about three months, Tess figured that we should get moving. She never mentioned where to. Without thinking, I followed her.

Winter 2013

It was fucking cold and all I wanted was shelter. I had nothing but a light jacket to protect me which didn’t help in below freezing temps.

“Tess, when the fuck are we going to find some shelter? Or, I don’t know, some warmer clothing?”

“I don’t know Y/N. Maybe you should help and then we can come up with a game plan.”

I scoffed but searched along with her. Finally, I had found a building that didn’t have a locked door.

“Hell yeah!”

“All right! Now we’re getting somewhere. Ah, ah, ah. Let’s check for infected first.” Tess stopped me when I was about to walk in. 

With a knife in hand, she slammed it on the metal doorframe. We waited a few seconds and just listened. When there were no crazed people rushing towards us, we moved in.

Reaching the center of the building, we found out where we were. It was a shoe store. It even had that weird smell that shoe places usually have. 

“A shoe store. Okay, that’s new.”

“It’s not a bad place to hole up in. Before we fully commit to the place, let’s do a quick sweep.”

“Alrighty, boss.”

We decided it’d be quicker if we split up. I also thought that it was a dumb idea, but I was fucking tired and just wanted to sleep. Thankfully, nothing too gone wrong. I only managed to scare myself by knocking a few shoeboxes down.

“Ah, shit!”

“Everything okay over there?”

“Yeah,” I sighed out. I groaned as I kicked the shoe boxes. “I just spooked myself.”

I could hear a snort from across the room. When I made my way over to Tess, I saw that there was a shit-eating grin on her face. I rolled my eyes and shoved her. She let out a laugh, and I cracked a small smile.

A couple of hours passed as the two of us had been gathering stuff for the night. Tess had made a fire and started cooking the two rabbits we had caught earlier. I had found a pair of boots which I desperately needed. Being stuck in off-brand ugg boots sucked.

Our backpacks were filled with new clothes and a couple of new knives. The two of us quickly found out that we had found ourselves in a strip mall. There were several stores, one of which I happily found a winter coat in. We didn’t really get the chance to explore too much because it had gotten pretty dark.

With the fire raging on, I watched as the rabbit meat cooked. I realize that watching food cook would make it feel like it took forever, but quite frankly, I didn’t care. I was so hungry. I couldn’t help it.

When the food had finished cooking, I practically vacuum sucked it into my mouth. I immediately regretted my decision. That was when I told Tess that I was heading to bed. I wouldn’t stay up only for my stomach to ache.

x_x

A hand shook me awake. On instinct, I was gripping the person’s arm and drawing my blade. When I realized who it was that woke me up, I was releasing her arm and putting away my knife.

Tess’s eyes were open wide and she was motioning for me to be quiet. I flashed her a quizzical look and all she did was jerk her head towards the door. I moved my gaze only for it to land on a large crowd of infected. The glass separated us from them but I knew from experience that wasn’t much protection.

Looking back to Tess, I saw that she was pointing to the door that we came through. I knew this meant that we were moving. I hesitated a little. Yeah, there were enough infected here that could tear us to shred but I had no clue what it was like outside. There could be a horde out there!

Eventually, I followed after Tess. I knew it could very well be the end, but I didn’t want to be in this place any longer. We were almost out the door when I made a particularly sharp turn. This caused another stack of boxes to knock over.

As soon as they came crashing down, I looked at Tess. Her eyes were blown open and her lips were slightly parted. I’m pretty sure I heard her let out a small gasp. What happened next seized my body.

All my muscles tensed and the breath was taken from my lungs. With the crash from the boxes, the group of infected were crashing through the glass door. The runners were groaning, the clickers were screeching, and both parties were heading straight towards us.

Tess’s hand on my arm snapped me out of my shock. It was then that we were running for the exit. Neither Tess nor I knew if the door would be able to keep the infected inside but there wasn’t any other way we could get out of this situation.

Tess was the first one out. I wasn’t too far behind her. When I was out of the doorway, Tess was slamming the door shut while pressing her whole body weight against it.

“Y/N, I need you to find something to block the door. I don’t know how well it’ll hold but it’ll give us some time to get away.”

“I’m on it.”

I ran my eyes around the area. Landing on a dumpster, I sprinted toward it. To say the thing was heavy would be an understatement. I had to use my whole body to get it to move. When I had reached Tess, I allowed her to wriggle from behind the dumpster. Both of us shoved it against the door. I don’t know how well it held up but the two of us didn’t stick around to find out.

Summer 2014

It was hot as balls outside. It was the kind of hot where all you wanted to do was strip down until there was literally nothing left of you. I fucking hated summer. Why the hell did we decide it was a good idea to travel to Texas?

“Tess! I’m dying here, man!” I flailed my limbs around.

Tess gave me the side-eye. “You could always walk in the shade ya know.” A smug look had found its way to her face.

“I am! It’s not doing anything! When can we find some shelter?” With my eyes closed, I leaned my head back. I was pouting. Yes, it was childish, but I didn’t care.

“Soon, okay? We’ve just got to go around this town and then we can settle down for the night.” She lightly punched my arm.

With a groan, I kicked a fallen tree branch. The more I thought about it, the more I realized the shade helped a little. I still wanted to strip off all my clothes, but I didn’t exactly want to peel off my skin.

We walked for what felt like hours. It was as if this damn town was never-ending. The sun beat down on us as we walked. A lot of the foliage had ended and now it was just open fields. The buildings were my only source of shade.

When the end finally came into view, I almost shouted for joy. By almost, I meant someone interrupted me. Tess had grabbed my arm and dragged me behind a building. I didn’t know what her deal was until I heard them.

There was a group of about six or so men walking around. Some held baseball bats, while others had some sort of blade. Ah, these people were people we didn’t want to mess with.

And of course, they choose to come out at this moment. Couldn’t they have appeared after we got around this place? I just wanted to cool down! Was that too much to ask for?

“What’s the plan now?”

“We take them out quickly and quietly.”

I turned to Tess with wide eyes. “What? We’re not gonna just sneak around them?”

“Just think, we get around them and we find shelter. What if they find the place we’re staying at? We’re screwed at that point. It’s better to just take them out now.” 

She had a point. I just didn’t want to have to kill anyone. I haven’t had to do it until this point.

“You take three and I get the other three.” eyeing me, Tess could see the apparent panic on my face. “Hey, you got this. Just come up behind them, cover their mouths, and then shove your knife into their throat. You’re gonna need to use some strength to drive the knife in, but I know you’ll do it. It’s us or them.”

I nodded. I knew I wouldn’t get any words out. Anxiety swirled in my stomach. I swallowed the lump that formed in my throat and moved closer to the men.

Tess wasn’t lying. It took a little arm strength to force the knife in. What didn’t help was the man was bigger than me and struggled to get out from my hold. I almost let him go. Thankfully, I had tacked the man and I could use my body weight to keep him down.

After that, it was a matter of sneaking around them. I knew I had to hurry, so they didn’t notice their members were slowly dwindling. 

Reaching the last two men, I quietly took a few breaths. I would get through this and then Tess and I could get somewhere safe for the night. To my left, I could see Tess creeping up to one of the men.

“Yeah, remember the girl we found last week?”

“Oh, yeah. How’d that go?”

“Just as well as you’d expect it. She screamed and struggled. We eventually got her to calm down.”

“Bitches, am I right?”

“Yeah.”

I got real close to the man. Hearing what they were talking about left a sour taste in my mouth. It also lit something in me. Without even thinking, I was knocking the man down. He wasn’t expecting the hit, so he went straight down. I climbed on top of him and thrust my knife into his jugular. That was that. They were all dead. 

There was no relief. There was no remorse. There was nothing. I felt numb to it all. All I wanted was to get away from the place and get somewhere safe.

“Hey, you did good.”

“I guess.”

Our conversation ended there. I really didn’t want to talk about what just happened. I killed three people today. That was a lot for someone to take in. Let alone a fifteen-year-old

Autumn 2015

I had lost track of the date. Thankfully for the weather, I could at least tell what season it was. It was autumn.

“I turned sixteen this year,” I spoke up after a moment.

“Yeah? I turned eighteen. Scary how fast time goes by.”

“I guess you don’t really focus on that when you’re fighting to survive.” There was a pause, “I could be learning how to drive instead of learning the best place to set up a snare.”

Tess scoffed. “Learning how to drive? That’s really the first thing that comes to mind?” She was looking at me with a smirk.

Rolling my eyes, I shoved her. “Yeah, I really wasn’t allowed to date until I was eighteen. So, that’s the only big thing I could’ve experienced. That and maybe getting a job, but I don’t know. I never really thought of my first job,” Shrugging, I glanced at Tess.

“I get it. I’d probably have a lot of things at this point. Hell, I’d probably be back in Boston getting ready to go to college.” Her face wrinkled up at the thought.

I laughed at her reaction. “What? Don’t like the idea of college?”

“I have thought about it, but I never really thought that was the place for me. I hated high school and all I wanted to do was to get out. I wanted to explore and go on an adventure. I guess I got my wish.” She let out a chuckle. It was one of those laughs that had a slight sadness to it.

“Look at it this way; we’re doing okay so far. We might have gotten to miss out on some things, but you’re sort of living the dream and it’s not entirely impossible for me to learn how to drive.” As I spoke, I slung my arm around her shoulders. We leaned into each other as we walked.

x_x

It had been a calm day. Tess woke me up at the buttcrack of dawn which made me oh-so-happy but nothing too unfortunate had happened. The birds were singing and there was a light breeze to keep us cool. I knew it wouldn’t last. We don’t get nice days like this anymore. Something had to happen. I just didn’t think it would be something like this.

“Hey, what’s got you all quiet over there?” Tess was walking backward as she spoke to me.

I flashed her a small smile and shrugged. “I dunno. It’s just… Don’t you think that it’s been good for a couple of days? I can’t help but feel like somethings gonna hit us and one of us is going to end up in deep shit.”

Tess let out a breath through her nose. “Lighten up a little. So we have it good for a few days. I think we deserve it. Don’t you? It’s been hell for the past two years.”

“Yeah, I guess. It is nice to be able to walk somewhere without having to worry too much about the walking dead.” A smile found its way to my face. I guess it wasn’t so bad. Tess was right. We needed this after all the torture we have been through.

We were in Tennessee. I think. I haven’t seen a sign in a while. So, I really didn’t have any idea as to where we were. All I knew was that we were on our way to Boston.   
“So, what exactly are we going to do once we get to Boston?” I raised an eyebrow.

“Ya know, I haven’t really thought that far. I guess we can look for my aunt and uncle and see if they’ll take us in.”

“Sounds like a plan. I wonder what exactly we’ll do while in the quarantine zone.”

“You’ll probably go back to school while I’ll probably get a job.”

“The thought of school weirds me out. How in the hell am I supposed to focus while there are literal fungi people walking around outside?”

“I don’t know. You’ll figure it out?” Tess grimaced at her answer. 

Neither of us really knew what would happen when we reached the zone. For all we knew the place could be one big rumor and we were walking right into a death trap. But that’s what a lot of things were like these days. Why not hope?

x_x

Fuck! It was supposed to be a beautiful day where we got a break! I guess I should’ve known better. I did. This morning I was skeptical. I let Tess talk me out of it and this was the consequence. I’m so stupid.

We had found a hotel to hole up in for the night. The place we were traveling through was a small town, which surprisingly had a hotel as big as it was. I figured that it was some sort of tourist place.

When we got into the hotel, we cleared out the main floor. Once that was done, I had the bright idea of going up a few levels. That way if any hunters or other people with malicious intent came they wouldn’t find us. Going on along with that plan, the both of us moved to the third floor and cleared it out. Or at least we thought we had.

Our first mistake was not searching the area for outside entrances or other entrances to the other floors. Our second mistake was not setting a watch schedule. Tess said that since we had cleared the floor it wasn’t necessary for us to keep watch.

When the first groan rang out, I was throwing myself out of my sleeping bag. I tried to be as quiet as I possibly could, but my incredibly clumsy genes made that hard to do. I crawled over to where Tess was and shook her awake.

The motion must have freaked her out. As soon as her eyes were open, she was grabbing her knife and bringing it up to me. I caught her hand before she could do any damage. Her eyes narrowed at me.

At that moment, an ear-piercing scream was made outside the door. Accompanying the scream was a groan. It was the type of moan that makes your gut wrench and a shiver crawl down your spine.

“Shit, shit, shit!” Tess whisper yelled as she pulled herself out of bed.

“How in the hell did they get in? I thought we checked and double-checked the area!” It was hard to keep myself from yelling. I tend to get loud when I’m anxious.

“The fuck if I know!” Tess scoffed. “Maybe there was a hole in the wall or maybe we left a door open. All I know is that we need to find a way out here or we’re not going to make it till morning.”

The infected had caught on to us. I guess we hadn’t been as quiet as we thought. The dead fuckers were pounding on the door. Shaking violently, the door would not hold up for much longer.

I eyed the area. My eyes landed on the bathroom. We could hide in there. But that wouldn’t hold up any better than the main door. We needed something more. That’s when I thought of a plan.

“Tess, grab that lamp. I have an idea.”

“What exactly is the plan?”

I explained the plan to her while I grabbed a sheet off of a bed. Tess looked at me as if I was stupid, but I just shrugged and wrapped the sheet around the door handle.

“Are you fucking crazy?”

“It’s either this or we jump out the window. And unless you want to die by a broken neck, I suggest that you get into the bathroom.”

Letting something like a sigh and a scoff, Tess was rushing into the bathroom. She got into the position that she needed to throw the lamp. I was next to her, ready to pull the sheet.

The plan was simple. I would open the door and Tess would throw the lamp away from the bathroom. The infected would rush in and go towards the thrown light. Then we’d block their way with the bathroom door and rush in the hallway to our escape.

I looked at Tess to see if she was ready. Once she had nodded at me, I was pulling the sheet which swung the door open. As soon as the door was ajar, Tess was chucking the lamp to the other side of the room.

With the loud shatter of the lamp, the infected were scrambling towards the sound. That’s when we threw open the bathroom door and ran. Before leaving the hotel room, I gripped the door handle and slammed it shut. I hoped that it would buy us some time.

Only I didn’t calculate the fact that the hallway would be crawling with more infected. Beside me, Tess was frozen. Down the hall, to our left, was a large group of them. The slam from the door had alerted them to our presence.

We acted on impulse. That’s when things got real bad. Somehow we had lost each other and I was left on my own. After a lot of sneaking around, I found my way out of the hotel. I found a car in the parking lot and hid in it. I decided that I would give up on Tess and wait for her to come out.

She and I had been through some shit. I knew that she’d make it out. She always did. 

I waited for a whole day. When the light shone, I got distraught. Tears burned my eyes as I hyperventilated. She wasn’t coming out. If she wasn’t alive, what would I do? I can’t survive on my own. I’m gonna die.

No, I would not go down that road. While sitting in the car, I tried to gather myself. I took some deep breaths until my breathing had evened out. Then I was wiping away my tears. I would wait here for a few more hours. If she didn’t come out, I would get on the road and make my way to Boston. If she had made it out, that would be where she would head toward. I could meet up with her there.

x_x

It had been weeks. I had turned into the lone wolf that I always heard of before the outbreak. People back then made it sound glorified. Lonely but glorified. That was nothing but a bunch of bullshit.

I was lonely. I was scared. I was so going to die. There had already been a few close calls. Sneaking around hunters and groups of infected had been my life. I didn’t realize how much I relied on Tess. I quickly learned that over two infected could easily overwhelm me.

Now, I worked by the highway. The forest beside me gave me enough cover so that hunters couldn’t spot me. That was one thing that Tess had taught me.

In the distance, I could see Roanoke city. The closer I got to the city, the quicker I needed to make a decision. To go through it or not. The smart idea would be to go around, but it would make things quicker if I snuck through. Tess could be halfway to Boston already, and I’m nowhere near cl0se.

Upon reaching the city, I made my decision. I would get in and get out. It shouldn’t take more than a day. I could hopefully stick to alleyways and less crowded roads to get through. 

Was this smart? Ha, no. But I didn’t want to make a two-day trip around the city. Quicker was better. Who knows, I could find some good supplies while I’m inside.

x_x

I tried. I really tried. I tried being as inconspicuous as possible. Taking one wrong turn, I ran into a horde of infected. They were crammed into the tiny alleyway which caused some of them to be practically piled on top of each other.

One step accompanied by a gasp was all it took. The sound traveled through the alleyway and grabbed their attention. I froze. I thought the sound of one infected was frightening. That was nothing compared to the terror of an entire horde’s screams bouncing off the walls.

Still frozen, my brain rapidly tried to process the situation I was in. I was so out of it I didn’t even notice a hand wrapping around my arm. What snapped me back was the mystery person dragging me away.

Then we were running. I didn’t pay attention to the person who had saved me. I only focused on my running. I had no idea where we were going, which probably was a bad thing. But in my defense, I was pumped full of adrenaline. It made everything blur together. Survival instincts had that effect on a person.

“Hey, it’s me! Come on, open the damn door! We’ve got company!” My savior shouted while banging on a door. 

By the voice, I could tell they were a woman. I didn’t really have time to register anything else before the horde caught up to us. Ice shot through my veins again. Thankfully, this time I didn’t freeze up for long. As soon as the door was open, mystery girl and I rushed in. The door slammed behind us.

“What the hell were you thinking out there? Were you trying to get yourself killed?” Mystery girl whipped around to yell at me. 

I stood there in shock. Normally, I get a “who the fuck are you” or a “move and I’ll shoot”. Greetings weren’t the friendliest these days. This happened to be a pleasant change of pace.

“I-I uh…. I was just trying to cross through the city. I didn’t know. I didn’t know that they were there.”

The woman before me just stared at me. Her blue eyes were wide and her mouth was slack. “Who in their right mind travels through an infected city alone?”

I examined the woman before me. She was short. She reached to about my shoulder. She was probably somewhere around 5’2”. She glared at me from where she stood. Her pale skin was dotted with freckles, which helped with the vibrancy of her auburn hair. 

I don’t know what I expected. I thought that because Tess saved me the first time that maybe she had saved me this time. The woman before me was the complete opposite of Tess. A feeling of disappointment was in the pit of my stomach. It was small, but I felt it. 

Why the hell does this woman care so much? I stood there staring at her. I couldn’t see anything that would really give me an answer. It wasn’t until I took in my surroundings that I came to a revelation.

Around me, there were groups of people. Men and women busied themselves. They had guns, rations, medical supplies, and more. It was all getting packed away. This was unlike anything I had seen before. Sure, people traveled together. It was usually in smaller groups. This was no survival group. It must be one of those militia groups that other travelers had talked about.

“Who the hell are you people?”

“We’re the Fireflies.” A brown-skinned woman affirmed. She must have approached us while we were… getting to know each other. “We saw you come into the city. I didn’t think you’d be dumb enough to run into a horde of infected.”

This woman held herself differently. Arms were cross her hip was jutted out. She was taller than me. Only by an inch or so. I could tell that she had been through some shit. Her body was marred with scars. There even seemed to be a deep scar as if she’d been hit with a bullet. This woman intimidated me.

“It wasn’t in the plan.” I rolled my eyes, “Look, I’m gonna make this quick and easy. I just need to get through the city so I can get to Boston. I’m meeting someone there.”

The redhead chuckled. “Boston?” 

“It just so happens that we’re traveling to Boston. If you want, you can tag along with us.” The brown-skinned woman said.

“I don’t know. I’m not really looking to get involved with a militia group.”

“You don’t have to join us. I was just offering you some protection. All you’ll have to do is help out a little.” I was about to interject when the dark-skinned lady spoke over me, “Nothing that would get you involved. Just helping with the cooking and maybe taking watch here and there.” 

“Okay, I guess it wouldn’t hurt.”

“Okay, it’s solved.” My savior nodded with small smile

“I guess we should exchange our names. We will be working together. I’m Marlene and this one here is Anna.”

“Y/N.” I gave a tight smile.

“Now that’s been taken care of, let’s show you around the place. Maybe you can help with the packing.” Anna motioned for me to follow as she walked toward the group of fireflies.

X_x

Months passed. They gave me a bed and food in exchange for some backup, a few night shifts, and I helped Anna in the makeshift med bay. It wasn’t a tough life. I was glad that I didn’t have to watch my back 24/7. 

I knew at some point we were supposed to reach Boston. I hadn’t really been paying much attention to where we were. Anna and Marlene kept me busy. 

Recently, though, I have been getting a feeling. I don’t know what it was, but I think there’s a large possibility that I’d never see Tess again. This has been in the back of my mind for a month now. I was coming to terms with it.

“Hey, Y/N. You want to come help me over here?” Anna shouted at me.

Looking over, I could see that she was struggling to keep a firefly down. The soldier had a mangled leg. It must have been blown up by some sort of bomb containing shrapnel.

“Oh shit! Yeah, what do you need me to do?” I asked her once I was inside the med bay. 

“Just hold him down. I need to clean off the blood. When I pour this on his leg, he will thrash around. I will need you to keep him as still as possible.”

“I’m not going to be able to hold him down by myself.” That’s when I saw a random soldier walking by. “Hey, you!” He stopped and turned to me. “I need you to help me hold this guy down.”

“Okay Y/N, I want you to pay attention to what I’m doing. You never know when you’re going to need this skill. You’d be surprised how useful it is”

“I’ll try.”

I watched as she went to work. With everything she did, she explained how to do it. The man below me hollered and screamed as Anna worked on his leg. I held him down as best as I could. I had no clue how well I would have done without the other soldier’s help.

At some point the man had passed out from the pain. The soldier who helped me left to finish his duties while I stayed where I was. Anna walked me through some more stuff.

“Ya know, I never really liked kids. However, I will say that I don’t mind you.”

“I would never have guessed that. You acted so concerned for me when we first met.”

“Well, I am a nurse. Being concerned is in the job description, really.”

Anna and I had gotten close recently. I told her how I didn’t really know any basic medical stuff. She had offered to give me a few lessons. She explained how most fireflies have basic knowledge on how to stitch up a wound. I figured it would help me in the long run.

“You did good, kid. Maybe next time I’ll let you stitch someone up.” I must have made a face because soon after she was saying, “It won’t be anything like today. I’d have you start on a cut or maybe a small bullet wound.”

“I would like that. Someday we could even get to where I can do what you did today.”

“If you stay with us, yeah. I can do that.”

Spring 2016

It took us a lot longer to get to Boston then we thought. Winter had hit us hard. There was a solid month where we made base camp until the snow had calmed down. I hadn’t realized how bad New York winters were. Maybe they were so bad because humanity had fallen. Maybe The world was taking itself back. Whatever it was it made things difficult to travel.

Upon reaching Boston, I had a sense of sadness hit me. I didn’t want to leave. No, I wasn’t one for the Fireflies as an organization, but I had gotten close with some people here. One person in particular. Anna had become a good friend. Dare I say a best friend. I didn’t want to leave her.

On the other hand, I wanted to find Tess. I wanted to meet up with her and I wanted things to be okay. I loved the idea of living together and becoming a team. I wanted to have that life.

The more I stayed in the city, the more I came to the reality that dream would never happen. Boston was huge. A lot of it had been blocked off, but there was still a sizable chunk of it that was fully functional. I had no way of contacting Tess if she was here. 

I never really accepted the fact that she might have died. Maybe she had. I needed to move on. And that’s what I did.

Autumn 2018

“Oh shit, oh shit, OH SHIT!” Anna cursed from behind the med bay tent.

She had stepped out, claiming that she needed to relieve herself. She had been acting pretty weird lately. By weird I meant that she was throwing up in the morning, she was moodier, and she flat out refused to be anywhere near cooked meat.

I thought maybe she was sick. I asked her if she needed me to take over for her. I had practically been taught how to sew up a wound and fix a few of the bigger wounds. She turned me down saying that she was fine. I guess she wasn’t fine.

“Anna?” I called out.

“Fuck! Give me a minute. I’ll be right in.”

She scrambled around before finally coming back into the tent. I was surprised when I saw her face. Her eyes were puffy and red, her nose looked as if she had blown it, and a deep frown was on her lips.

“What the hell happened?”

Anna took a deep breath. A moment passed before she looked me in the eyes. “I’m pregnant.” Right after speaking she threw a pregnancy test on a medical bed.

A month ago we had found a place that was stocked up on medical supplies. Merlene never really went into detail on where this place was or who had owned it. It wasn’t hard to guess though. Some items had FEDRA stamped on them.

“Wh-how… When did you even get the chance to-”

“Remember that celebration we had in August?”

“You were so drunk.”

“Y/N.”

“Wait. I didn’t see you-Oh my gosh! You left with that one guy.. Um…”

“It doesn’t matter who he was. I don’t remember much of what happened that night. But yeah, I think that’s when it happened.”

There was a pause. I took it in while Anna just stood there. She would occasionally sniffle. Her eyes were practically glued to the floor.

“What are you going to do about it?”

Anna chuckled. “I don’t know yet. We don’t really have anything that can solve the problem. I guess I’ll just have to wait and see.”

Spring 2019

“There has to be a way! She can’t die! She didn’t even want this to happen! What the hell are we going to do about the kid?” Marlene was screaming at the doctor. She threw her hands up in frustration.

“Marlene.” Anna’s voice was weak. Breathing was difficult for her. “I want you and Y/N to look after her. Ellie needs strong people in her life. You two will do what’s right for her and that’s all I ask.”

I looked at her in shock. How the hell was I supposed to take care of a baby? I mean, I have always wanted a kid but after Outbreak Day, I figured that wasn’t ever going to happen.

“I’ll make sure she’s well taken care of. I don’t know the first thing about how to take care of a baby but I’ll find out for you.” I placed my hand on hers. Lifting my hand Anna placed a light kiss on the back of it.

“Thank you.”

“I’ll try my best as well. I just-Isn’t there another way?”

“No,” Anna flashed Marlene a sad smile, “I have maybe a few hours. No more than a day. That’s why I’m trusting you that you’ll take care of Ellie.”

“And we will.” I moved my gaze from Anna to Marlene. She had her eyes closed trying to prevent her tears from falling. Marlene was always one to not show her emotions.

“I’ll do what it takes.” Marlene finally spoke.

“Good.”


	2. Chapter 1: The Bite

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Years passed and Ellie grew up. Ellie sneaks out while you’re away. What happens changes both of your lives forever.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, I wrote this bad boy so quickly! I have been working hard on this series for a week and a half now. I can’t wait for you guys to read what I have planned! Please comment and tell me what you think! It really helps me out! Hope you guys enjoy it!

Summer 2033

The day had been long. I was stuck substituting for a seventh-grade teacher. He had gotten ill and I, unfortunately, had the day off. My boss asked me to fill in with the promise of the entirety of next week off. Thus, why my day was so shitty.   
There were maybe two hours that I had without the little monsters. They went to their military training. Those were the most relaxing two hours of my life. I had never been more relieved when they all left and I had my solitude.   
Yes, the Boston military preparatory school had treated me well. I would hope so. When you’re alone and taking care of a kid, I would expect them to. It had almost been a decade and a half. Needless to say, I had become quite a figure in this school. Sadly, this meant that they roped me into numerous committees. Or stunts like today.  
Granted, I owe all of this to Marlene. She had recommended that I should continue my high school education while I traveled with the Fireflies. I got the most basic education from the most basic teacher. If it wasn’t for that, I wouldn't be doing what I was today. That’s one positive thing I could say about the woman.  
All I wanted to do was crash. Unfortunately, I had a kid at home who was probably waiting on my ass to make dinner. My kid was a firecracker. She kept me on my toes, which I gladly welcomed. The first couple of years with her were some rocky years, but the motivation for her to survive kept me going.  
“Hey, I’m home. Sorry, it took so long. I was stuck with the seventh-graders. Please don’t get mad at me! Jason said that I’d get all next week off if I did this one favor.” Right as I finished speaking, I walked into the living room/kitchen only to find it empty.  
Well, that’s weird. The apartment was eerily quiet. Walking to the door to her room and opening it, I saw a sight that made me swell with pride. She was sitting at her desk, with her earbuds in, doing her homework.  
I walked up to her and pulled out one earbud, “Hey, baby girl.” I leaned down and kissed her cheek.  
“Ugh, mom!” The girl’s face scrunched up. She dropped her pencil and wiped her cheek.  
“What? I can’t kiss my daughter’s cheek?”  
“I’m too old for that shit.”  
“Hey, language young lady.” I flashed her a look, which meant nothing since I was smiling.  
She scoffed. “Yeah, says the woman who swears like a sailor.”  
“Well, damn. You know me like the back of your hand.”  
“It’s not like I’ve lived with you for the past fourteen years.” She gave me an eye roll, “So, why weren’t you here when I got home?”  
I chuckled. I knew she had her earbuds in, but some part of me wished she had heard me. “I got asked to fill in for someone.”  
“On your day off?”   
“Yeah, unfortunately. But, hey! I got all next week off!”  
“Well, that’s oddly nice of Jason.”  
“The way I look at it: I deserve the fucking time off. It's been fourteen years with the damn school and not a single day off. It’s about time I get a vacation. Anyway,” I let out a breath, “That’s why.”  
“Ah, okay. Well, I have homework. Let me know when dinner is ready,”  
“Will do, kiddo.” I ruffled her hair before leaving the room. Right before I closed the door, I turned back to her, “Hey, Ellie?” I smiled as she looked back at me, “I love you.”  
“I love you too.”

x_x

Dinner came and went. Migrating from the kitchen island to the couch, Ellie and I chatted about our day. Both of us laughed so much, tears threatened to spill from our eyes.  
“So, wait. She was trying to what?” Ellie exclaimed.  
“She tried to make me look like I was an uneducated dumbass. She kept asking me questions she thought I didn’t know the answers to. I think one question was over who was the first person in space.”  
“And you dished out some of her own medicine?”  
“Hell yeah, I did!”  
“Nice.” Ellie pursed her lips and nodded.  
“Alright kiddo, it’s late. You’ve got school in the morning and you’re gonna hate yourself in the morning if you stay up any longer.” I patted her leg.  
“Yeah, you’re probably right.”  
We both stood up. Ellie moved to her bedroom while I went to the kitchen to clean up the mess we made during dinner. As I cleaned the dishes, I chuckled a little.   
If anyone told me when I was fourteen, that in twenty years I would be living with my adopted kid, in the middle of the apocalypse, I’d have laughed in your face. Then I would have gone home to play video games. I pretty much figured that I would be dead by the time I turned thirty, let alone thirty-four. Cheery, I know.  
I had just finished the dishes when there was a knock at my door. With a groan, I made my way to the door. What could anyone possibly want at ten o’clock?  
Upon opening the door, I found a guy in shady clothing. It looked like he was trying to not be noticed which did nothing seeing how he was in school housing wearing muggers clothing.  
“Um, can I help you?”  
“I was told to deliver this.” The man extended his hand that held a folded piece of paper.  
I raised an eyebrow but the man just motioned for me to grab it. As soon as the note was in my hands, the suspicious man was leaving. Looking at the paper, I shut the door.  
I moved to sit on my couch. Upon opening the note, I instantly knew who it was from.

Spring 2032

Ellie was turning thirteen this year. She was officially becoming a teenager. I decided to get her a special present. It couldn’t be anything predictable. There were several things I thought of that I could get her. Yet, there was one thing that I thought would make her really happy.  
Walking to the market, I knew that there’s one stall that held items like the one I was looking for. It was tucked in the corner. The man who ran the little store sold a selection of electronic goods. He’s even had a few iPods. Those things were priced pretty high though.  
I was only left with disappointment. He didn’t have what I was looking for. Fortunately for me, he told me he had a guy that could get me what I wanted. He gave me an address and a name to ask for.   
I knew this wouldn’t be cheap but Ellie was worth it. I loved the girl to death. This was small compared to the other things that I would do for her.  
Stepping up to the building, I knocked on the door. An eye slot on the door opened up. A pair of eyes look out of the small opening. Landing on me, they squinted ever so slightly.  
“What’s your business here?”  
“I’m looking for Joel Miller. I have a job for him.”  
The man looked me up and down. After a few seconds, he let out, “One second.” Then the eye slot was closed and I was left outside.  
Maybe five or ten-ish minutes passed before the door opened again. I was facing away from the door and whipped around once the door made a noise. A man had stepped out. Looking at him the first thing I noticed was his stoic facial expression. He clearly wasn’t thrilled to be bothered.  
Eyeing him, I could see that his hair was greying. Little scars and wrinkles covered his face. He had been through some tough shit. The apocalypse hadn’t been kind to him. With that being said, he was exceedingly attractive. Yes, he looked roughed up, but it did do anything to mask his good looks.  
“You called?” A deep, gravelly southern drawl blessed my ears.  
“Yes, I was told that you could acquire something for me,”  
“Alright, what is it exactly that you need?” A sigh escaped him.  
“It’s my daughter’s birthday in a few months and I want to get her a walkman or some sort of cassette player. I would prefer it to be a walkman but whatever you come across will work.”  
The man listened to me while scratching his beard. He looked into oblivion, thinking. I assumed it was him debating if he wanted to take my insignificant job or not.  
“Okay, what do ya got to offer?”  
“I have ration cards. Name how many you want and their yours”  
“How do I contact you once I have what you need?”  
Pulling out a notebook, I quickly scribbled down my information. “That’s my name and address. When you’ve got the item, you can either come find me or get someone to get me. I’ll give you the cards then.”  
And that was that. It took Joel about a month and a half to find a walkman. He had sent some guy with a time and a place. I got the walkman and he got his ration cards.  
From that point on Joel and I would do small little transactions with each other. I found myself with items I didn’t know I needed. Joel had become quite the asset If I do say so myself.

Summer 2033

The piece of paper had an address and a time on it like it always did. He wanted to meet up at eleven o’clock. It was already ten pm. I wanted to see what goodies he had for me but I also didn’t want to leave Ellie alone. It was late.  
Nothing too bad should happen while I’m out, right? I could get caught outside past curfew. Yet, that could be said for all the other times I’ve gone out late. The only thing I could think that could happen would be that Ellie might try to sneak out.  
I didn’t have too many worries when it came to Ellie sneaking out. I did when her friend Riley was around. That girl would drag Ellie out in the wee hours of the morning and I would end up hearing about it from Ellie’s overseer. But from what I know, Riley is nowhere to be seen and is out of Ellie’s life. This means she wouldn’t be sneaking out anytime soon and I could rest easy.  
I still felt a little guilty for leaving without telling her though. I figured it wouldn’t hurt anybody to tell her that I’d be gone for about an hour. That’s when I cracked the door open and knocked on the doorframe. She looked back at me.  
“Hey, I’m gonna go out for an hour. I have… something to take care of. It shouldn’t take more than an hour.” I leaned my body against the doorframe.  
“Oh, uh… Okay. Just be careful, yeah?”  
“Always, girly. Now, I want you in bed and asleep by the time I get back.” I looked directly into her eyes as I said this.  
Ellie rolled her eyes at me. “Yes, mom.” With a scoff, she turned back to her desk.  
It was my turn to roll my eyes. That girl and her sass. I moved away from her door frame and shut it behind me. With that taken care of, I was grabbing my backpack and heading out of the small apartment.  
It was dark out. This was both a blessing and a curse. This gave me great cover but I was tripping over myself every few steps. I never cease to amaze myself. How the hell have I made it this far? I guess I could thank Tess.  
Walking through the darkness, I kept my eyes on the lit roads. Occasionally, there would be a patrol driving down the road. I never really understood what they did this late. Maybe it was simply looking for people sneaking about. Okay, nevermind. That sounds so useless and boring. But I guess it was a job that someone had to do.  
I was so caught up in my thoughts I failed to notice the hunk of metal riding down the crumbling road. When I registered it, I hurriedly clambered to the ground. From the corner of my eye, I watched as the spotlight on the tank pass me by. Just to be safe, I stayed there for a minute or two.   
When nothing happened, I pulled myself up and rushed to where Joel was probably waiting on me.

x_x

The area was pitch black. Not even the streets were lit up which made things ten times more difficult to maneuver around. However, when I examined the area, I could see a faint light coming from the alleyway to my left. As I walked down the alleyway, I heard a whistle that sounded very familiar. Oh, I was on the right track.  
Joel was there waiting in the faint light of a broken exterior light. He was gripping the strap of his backpack while leaning against the wall behind him. Approaching him, I smiled.   
He pushed off the wall and moved to stand closer to me. “For a minute there I didn’t think you were gonna show up,” Joel admitted while scratching his beard.  
“I almost didn’t. It’s late and I didn’t want to leave my daughter alone.”  
“Right, sorry. I didn’t even think-”  
“It’s all good. So, what do ya got for me?”  
“Right, um.” Joel knelt down and placed his backpack on the ground. Shuffling through the bag, he pulled out a stack of cassette tapes. “We went through a couple of cars and I happened to find these. I figured your girl would like ‘em.”  
Grabbing the tapes from him, I read through the artist names. Motley Crue, Queen, Johnny Cash, Elvis, and Fleetwood Mac popped out at me. Oh, Ellie would be elated about these.   
“She’ll love these! Thank you.” I flashed Joel a grin.  
A small smile found its way to his face. “‘S no big deal.” Joel scratched the back of his head.   
There was a pregnant pause while we just stood there staring at each other. In the dim light, I could see the highlighted feature of Joel’s face. High cheekbones, his broken nose, and his upper lip that was covered by his facial hair.   
Realizing I was staring, I looked away. When I looked back at him, I noticed he was staring too. His line of sight fluttering over my face. Finally focusing back on my eyes. He cleared his throat.  
Flashing me one last tight smile, Joel threw his backpack on. He reached up to pat my shoulder and I nodded to him. Then he left through the alleyway. I furrowed my brows as I noticed the warmth that spread across my cheeks.  
What the hell was that? There have been a few moments with that awkward staring but not to that extent. I was glad he acted as if nothing had happened. Whatever that was, I was unsure what I thought of it. Deciding that I had been standing there for too long, I began the trip back home.

X_x

It felt like it only took me maybe twenty minutes to get back. But looking at the clock on the wall, I realized I had been out for almost three hours. Shock spread through me. I knew it took me a while to get to Joel but I didn’t think it had been that long. I hope Ellie was okay.  
With Ellie on my mind, I figured it wouldn’t hurt to peek in and check on her. I approached her door and ever so quietly twisted the doorknob. I pushed the door open just enough for me to peer in. What I saw turned my blood to ice.  
Her bed was empty. The blankets were messed up which indicated that she had been in it at some point. Pushing the door all the way, I examined the space. Her window was open and her backpack was missing.  
My breathing picked up. The familiar pressure in my chest weighed down on me and I couldn’t focus on anything but where the hell the girl could have gone.   
It didn’t look like she had struggled. So there was a chance she had gone out on her own. That’s when I noticed a small coin-shaped thing on her floor. Picking it up I instantly noticed the Firefly emblem on the back of it. My mind went to Marlene.  
She would visit from time to time. I guess she felt guilty that she pretty much dropped Ellie and me off to go do her Firefly propaganda. If she had taken my daughter to do some Firefly shit, I was going to be so pissed. How dare she take Ellie without asking me!  
Upon flipping the tag over, my anger diminished a sightly. It was replaced with the cold unsettling feeling of shock. My hands had now begun to sweat while my breathing hadn’t gotten any better.   
Right in front of me was the name Riley Abel. I thought the girl had died. Ellie told me she didn’t even know what happened to her. All I knew was that she said some pretty nasty stuff to Ellie before she disappeared off the face of the earth. This is where she had ended up.  
I let out a small chuckle. Marlene was not gonna be happy when she heard of it. With the dog tag still in hand, I was standing up and yet again reaching for my backpack. I was going straight to Marlene and finding out what the hell was going on.

x_x

In her last visit, Marlene had given Ellie and me directions to the current base here in Boston. As I mentioned before, the woman would drop by from time to time just to check on how Ellie was doing. It was like she didn’t trust me. If that was the case then she shouldn’t have left me to raise her on my own.  
I scoffed at the thought as I moved within the shadows. I had to dodge a few caravans of FRDRA sliders but I eventually made it to the address. I hadn’t seen Marlene in months. She was supposed to meet up with Ellie a month ago. I guess things weren’t going so well for her little group.  
A soldier on top of a building had caught sight of me. Before he could shoot I was raining my hands up. I looked up at him.  
“Don’t shoot!”  
“What do you want?” the soldier questioned.  
“I’m here to see Marlene. Tell her Ellie is missing. She’ll know what it means.”  
With that, the FIrefly left. Just as he left, another Firefly took his place. The woman who took over instantly had her gun trained on me. I just stood there and examined the alleyway around me.  
There wasn’t anything interesting about the place. I highly doubt that FEDRA had any chance of finding the base. It looked like any other alleyway except for the armed guard on the roof.  
Suddenly, the doors in front of me were opening. It was the soldier from before along with a very distraught looking Marlene. She wasn’t looking so good.  
Marlene looked a lot skinnier. Her dark skin had paled a bit. I could tell that she and her group were struggling to get supplies. Thus, how sickly and starved she looked.  
“What is it?” Marlene had stopped right in front of me. She had kept her voice down.  
“She’s missing. I stepped out for a couple of hours only to come back to find her room devoid of her. She was supposed to be sleeping. Her window was open, her sheets were messed with, and I found this,” Pulling out the dog tag from before, I slapped it into her hands. “What the fuck does that mean? Did you send Riley to get Ellie without my knowledge? Are they in there with you?” I had resulted in yelling. I didn’t fucking care if the FEDRA soldiers or anyone else could hear. I wanted my daughter back.  
“Y/N, calm down.” She placed her hands on my shoulders, “I had no idea that Riley had gone out. I’m sure we can find them. It’ll be okay.”  
I closed my eyes as I got control of my breathing. It wouldn’t help anyone if I had an anxiety attack. When I had control of myself, I looked toward Marlene. She waited on me to calm down.  
“So, what’s the plan?” I was the first to speak.  
“DO you have any clue where they could be?”  
“I have a few. Some of them are out of the question since they’ve been closed off.”

X_x

It had been hours. Marlene had split us up. I went over every place that I could think of. Each group took a location and did a deep search. Each time someone notified that they had found nothing, my anxiety worsened.  
My baby girl was who knows where, doing who knows what. She could be dead for all I know. In all fourteen years of her life, I had never been as scared as I was. I promised Anna that I would do a good job with her. I could have failed her already. I needed to find Ellie.  
Hours went by. I was a mess. The anxiety had been attacking me since the first hour and it only got worse as time went on. Getting sloppy, I almost got myself and a few members of my squadron killed. Marlene had threatened me over the walkie. She said that if I didn’t pull myself together, then I would be forced back to the Firefly base.  
I collected myself. I took a moment to really think about where she possibly could have gone.  
We had tried every possible place. Maybe that’s what we were doing wrong. I knew of one place Ellie constantly talked about. She and her best friend had always wanted to explore the old shopping mall. It had been closed off for years. It was big and we’d need to bring several groups to search the place.   
“Hey, I have an idea. It’s a little crazy but I’m going crazy so what does it really matter? Anyone near the shopping mall?” Releasing the button on my walkie, I waited for a response.  
A crackle came through. It was Marlene’s voice.  
“That place is locked up tight. Are you sure you want to check it out?”  
“It’s the only place that’s coming to mind. I know, it’s practically impossible to get into but I know that those two really wanted to get inside and explore. Maybe Riley felt bad about leaving Ellie and wanted to make it up to her. The two didn’t leave it on good terms.”  
Right as I finished speaking, a Firefly spoke up. “Ma’am, we might have something here. We’re right outside the mall and I can see light coming from the inside. Someone has turned on the power.”  
“Thank you, Warren. I’m on my way. I want everybody to keep us all updated on what we find. If any of you find the girls, immediately contact us.” With that, Marlene got off.  
I was already halfway there. As soon as there was mention of life inside the mall, I was redirecting my course. It didn’t take me long to reach the mall. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find an entry point. I had my team help look for one. At some point, I just said “fuck it” and got help ripping off a wooden board. I informed Marlene of our progress once we were inside.  
I was thankful for the power being on. I really didn’t want to stumble around in a place that could be jam-packed with infected. I had been there and done that. It was anything but pleasant.   
It didn’t take me long to find a lead. Faint music was playing and I followed it. Upon entering the room, I found two backpacks. One of them I recognized very well. I picked it off the floor. Right as I was about to contact Marlene, I heard a moan. I froze right where I was.   
Out of the corner of my eye was an infected. It twitched and scratched at itself while limping around the room. Thankfully, it couldn’t see me from the direction it faced. With ease, I took care of it.  
Knowing there were more infected in the area, I walkied for the others to back me up. Right after me, Marlene informed us that she was close to the mall. I pressed on knowing backup was on the way. Ellie was so close.  
The further I got, the more terrified I became. A shocking amount of infected meandered the halls. If Ellie had traveled down this way, I had little hope that she had made it.  
Tears stung in my eyes at the thought of finding her corpse. I didn’t even want to imagine her as one of those things. She wouldn’t want that. Or that’s what I told myself.  
I reached a peculiar section of the mall. There was old scaffolding still set up from before the outbreak. A swarm of infected had gathered around it. Making a rash decision, I threw a bomb. I knew it wasn’t the smartest solution, but it was a quick one.   
Upon further inspection, I could see that even more infected had fallen through a substantial gap between the scaffolding. This gave a hint as to where Ellie had gotten to.  
It wasn’t until I made it to the other side that I heard them. Loud shuffling was coming from a room to my left. Running towards the sound, I just barely got a glimpse at someone exiting the mall.  
“They’re on the south side of the building!” Marlene’s voice rang from my walkie.   
I cried out in relief. It was them, and Marlene had them.   
Then Marlene was speaking again, “Y/N, we’re going to need you to come here. There’s something you should see.”  
The breath was stolen from my lungs; I had tears stinging at my eyes again. So many negative thoughts raced around in my head. What was it I needed to see? Was Ellie okay? What if she’s hurt? How bad was it?  
Somehow, I managed to climb out of the mall. Below me, I could see that Marlene had guns trained on both girls. This switched me into mama bear mode.  
I practically threw myself down the scaffolding to get to where Ellie was. I have been through hell for the last twelve hours. Like hell I was gonna let Marlene shoot my daughter down.  
“Marlene! Don’t you fucking dare!” I was rushing to where they all stood.  
“I need you to calm down-”  
“Calm down? Ca-” I chuckled darkly, “You are pretty ballsy to tell me that when you have guns trained on my daughter.”  
“Mom,” Ellie’s weak voice stopped Marlene from saying anything.  
Next thing I knew, I was pushing through the Firefly soldiers and pulling Ellie to me. I held her head against my chest and wrapped an arm around her waist.  
“Oh, baby girl. Are you alright? What the fuck were you thinking when you snuck out? You gave me a heart attack. I’m just glad that we found you. Don’t think you’re getting out of this. You are in so much trouble. I love you, though. Please don’t do anything like that again.” Ellie squirmed in my hold. She was trying to push me away. When I realized that’s what she was trying to do, I let her go. With my brows knitted, I looked her in the eyes.  
Ellie looked away. She looked everywhere else but me. Examining her, I saw that blood covered her from head to toe. Her left hand was covering a spot on her right forearm.  
“Ellie, what’s wrong with your arm?”  
A long pause passed before a deep sigh escaped her. It sounded as if she was about to cry. One look at her face confirmed that.  
Ellie uncovered her right arm. I fell to my knees. My eyes never left the bite mark on her arm. Even if my sight blurred as the tears spilled from my eyes. My body shook with the sobs. Again, I pulled Ellie close to me.  
“No, not like this. NO!” I rocked side to side with Ellie still crushed to me.  
“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry!” Ellie had sunk to the floor and buried her head in my hair. Along with me, she jerked with violent sobs.  
“Shhh, we’re gonna figure this out. It’ll be okay. I’ll find a way. Don’t worry. I got you” As I spoke, I looked Marlene directly in the eyes. “We’re quarantining them.”  
“There’s-”  
“WE ARE QUARANTINING THEM AND THAT’S FINAL!” That shut Marlene up.

X_x

It didn’t take us long to get back to the base. We made rooms for Ellie and Riley. These rooms were made specially to monitor their progress. If either of them turned, we would know. To the side, there were a few Fireflies who were hastily working on something that might save them.  
I stood near Ellie’s room, pacing. Marlene watched me from afar. Her face was guarded. Anyone wouldn’t be able to see what she was feeling. I knew she was angry. Marlene’s muscles were taut. The blank expression was just a shield to conceal the resentment she held in her eyes.  
Yes, she cared for Ellie. I knew that much. I have held a grudge against her for years. She practically dropped us off and left us for her Firefly agenda. I get it. It was her way of protecting us. She didn’t want Ellie to get involved.   
This entire ordeal is devastating to her. Marlene promised, along with me, to protect this little girl. We had failed.  
Even though it was Ellie, Marlene did not like keeping the girls on base. She knew it was risky. I knew how she worked. In her mind, Ellie was already lost and now she’d have to experience her turning. She’d then have to kill her.  
Marlene had given up but I wasn’t giving up. No parent would. This girl, though not biologically, was my daughter. I had watched as she grew up.   
I remember when she was two years old and I put her hair up into two little pigtails. It was the cutest thing to watch as they bobbed up and down as she ran. Or when she was eight and I got her a skateboard. She fell off of it within minutes. That first skinned knee hurt the worst. Hell, I laughed my ass off at her reaction to her first period. She thought she was dying. That was an easy fix with an awkward conversation and a box of tampons.  
Raising a kid for fourteen years means you don’t just give up on them. Some part of me knew it was inevitable, but I was stubborn and I wouldn’t let my little girl die. Not this way.

X_x

Two days after the incident, Riley was the first one to go. A soldier was the one to put a bullet in her head. Ellie cried for hours. I wanted to go in there and comfort her, but Marlene refused to let me in. She went as far as to post guards by her door to prevent me from going in. I just stood by the viewing window and talked her through it.  
When a week went by, everyone got hopeful. It confused the Fireflies who were working on a temporary solution. They were mere nurses. They didn’t have the experience we needed to understand what was going on.  
Halfway through the second week, Marlene came up with a plan. This could mean something big. She knew of a doctor who had joined the Fireflies back in 2028. She told me that she’d take us in a group to him. She didn’t disclose where we were going. I thought that was a little weird, but figured it didn’t matter. We’d have a group of people who knew exactly where to go.

x_x

Marlene had us waiting in some kind of old coffee shop. Finding a booth in the corner, Ellie sat down. She pulled her knife out and was messing around with it. Leaning against the counter, I let my eyes drift from the door to her. I was still in awe. How the hell had we gotten into this situation? She was here, bitten and yet alive.  
Immune. That’s what Marlene claimed. I called it luck. Yes, it was an anomaly that could lead us to a cure. But on the flip side, this could be nothing.  
“Ugh, what’s taking her so long?” Ellie stood up and flung her arms around.  
I chuckled at her antics. “Calm down. I’m sure she’s on her way. Maybe this “Robert” was hard to convince.”  
“I guess, I just wish he'd accept so we can get a move on. Waiting around is fucking boring.”  
“Patience is a virtue.” I claimed in a sing-song voice.  
“Psssh, that’s such a mom thing to say.”  
“But it’s true.” I smirked at her.  
In response to my smug look, Ellie rolled her eyes. She hated my parenting bullshit. I got a kick out of it. She had much to learn.  
The door unlocked. When it opened, Marlene stumbled in. She fell on the ground. Bending down, I attempted to help her up. That’s when a pair of scarred hands came into view.  
My eyes trailed up the man’s arms only to land on his face. I thought I would never see this man again. When I recognized who it was, I let out a shocked gasp. Why was he here?  
“Get the fuck away from her!” Ellie yelled at Joel.  
A woman came rushing in and grabbed Ellie’s wrist, “Hey, hey, hey-”  
Marlene reached out to them, “Let her go.”  
Finally recognizing who the new woman was, I shouted, “What the fuck? What the FUCK?”


	3. Chapter 2: The Smugglers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You, Tess, Joel, and Marlene figure out how you’re going to get to the drop off at the Capitol.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This guy took me a while to write. I literally finished it Thursday. I typically have the next part finished by Monday/Tuesday. This chapter was initially supposed to be 11k but I decided to cut it into two parts. I should have the next second part of this sucker tomorrow or Monday. I’m not too happy about this chapter but I hope you like it. Enjoy!

Summer 2033

The room shut up at my exclamation. We all swapped gazes as we took in who the hell was here. My eyes flicked between Joel and Tess. I didn’t know who to focus on. Tess, who was here and alive. Or Joel, who just so happens to know Tess, and is here with her.  
“Holy shit.” Tess dragged the word holy out. She crossed her arms and jutted out her hip. A smirk found its way to her face. “Hey, It’s been a while.”  
I let out an unbelieving scoff. “That’s the first thing you say to me after eighteen years?”  
While Tess and I were talking, Ellie had noticed Marlene’s current state. She rushed to her.  
“Oh, shit. What happened?”  
This grabbed my attention and I hurried to help Ellie get Marlene up. She didn’t look to be in great condition. She was holding her side which oozed blood. I knew it was bad out there but I didn’t think Marlene would get caught up in it.  
Leaning on the counter, Marlene turned to the both of us. “Don’t worry. This is fixable. I got us help.” Marlene nodded towards Joel and Tess. “But I can’t come with you.”  
“Then we’re staying.” I opposed.  
“Y/N, we won’t get another shot at this.”  
Joel walked towards Marlene. “Hey,” Joel pointed to Ellie and me, “We’re smuggling these two?”  
Marlene flicked her eyes to Joel, “There’s a crew of Fireflies that will meet you at the Capitol building.”  
Tess must have moved next to me because I could hear her scoff beside me. “That’s not exactly close.”  
“You’re capable.” Marlene shared a look with Tess. Suddenly, she turned back to Joel, “You hand then off, come back. The weapons are yours. Double what Robert sold me”  
A lightbulb turned on in my head. Robert must’ve been incapacitated, and these two were Marlene’s only option. Why though? Were they the ones to kill Robert?  
“Speaking of which, where are they?’ Tess didn’t like Marlene. I could see it in her eyes. I don’t blame her. I have my moments with the woman too.  
“Back in our camp.”  
Tess looked back at Joel. Shaking his head, Joel crossed his arms. Tess pressed her tongue into her cheek. Whipping back around to Marlene, Tess said, “We’re not smuggling shit until I see them.”  
“You can follow me. You can verify the weapons and I can get patched up.”   
“Uh-uh, she-” I cut in while pointing towards Ellie, “-isn’t crossing through that part of town.” Looking into Marlene’s eyes, I raise an eyebrow.  
It was a challenge. No way was I going to drag Ellie through probably one of the most dangerous parts of Boston just to confirm a payment.  
“We can go with Joel and you can take Tess with you.”  
“Whoa, whoa! I don’t think that’s the best idea.”  
“Bullshit! We’re not going with him!” Ellie and Joel roared out at the same time.  
Raising my voice, I shouted over her and Joel. “Ellie!”  
Ellie gazed at me. She had her mouth ajar. When she saw that I wasn’t relenting, she scoffed and threw her arms up. Turning around, Ellie spoke to Marlene, “How do you know them?”  
“I was close with his brother Tommy. He said if I was ever in a jam I could rely on him.” She made a point to look at Ellie and me.  
I must’ve been showing my surprise on my face. Marlene nodded at me. I knew Tommy. He was an influential figure in the Fireflies. He joined a year or two after I stumbled upon them. I chuckled a little. Tommy Miller was the brother of Joel. This situation just kept getting better and better.   
“Was that before or after he left your little militia group?” Joel glared at Marlene.  
“He left you too.” She threw his glare right back at him. “He was a good man.”  
I watched as Tess leaned over to Joel. “Look-just… take them to the north tunnel and wait for me there.”  
Before she could get the words out Joel was rejecting her. “Jesus Christ.” He shook his head.  
“They’re just cargo, Joel.”  
While the two hashed it out, I turned to watch Ellie. She eyed the two smugglers as they decided on what they wanted to do.  
Turning to me, Ellie complained, “Mom…”  
“No more talking. We’ll be fine. Marlene?” I turned to her.  
“I’m good. Now go with him.”  
When I looked back at Joel and Tess, I could see that Tess was looking between Ellie and me. I flashed her a questioning glance, but she only shook her head and faced Joel.   
Now facing each other two smugglers looked at each other in the eye. There was a lot of feeling in that look. A weird sense of hurt flashed through me. Yeah, there were some mixed feelings between Joel and I but we hadn’t even voiced it to each other. It was just glances and slight gestures. We had only met up a handful of times. These two had known each other for some time.  
“Don’t take long.” The only answer Joel got was a nod. He turned to the two of us. Joel focused on Ellie. “And you-stay close.”   
With that, we left the coffee shop. Upon walking out, we were greeted with the lovely sight of dead bodies. Joel ignored them and carried on. Ellie on the other hand...  
“Whoa… We heard the shooting, but… What happened?”  
“Fireflies,” I said.  
Waiting by the stairs, Joel voiced, “Same thing’s gonna happen to us if we don’t get off the street.”  
“You’re the pro.” Ellie followed right behind me.  
Around us, the QZ went on its usual schedule. I watched as several convoys drove past us in tanks. I could also hear the monotone voice that rang through the city’s sound system.  
Pressing on, I had to help Joel move a dumpster to actually get to the so-called “north tunnel”. It took some effort but before I knew it, we were in the tunnel.  
“So this tunnel. Do you use it to smuggle things?” Ellie questioned Joel.  
“Yep.”  
“Like illegal things?”  
“Sometimes.”  
I smirked. “How about a Walkman?”  
Joel let out a small chuckle. “Yeah.” He turned his head to give me the tiniest of smiles.  
Ellie must not have caught on seeing how she asked, “You ever smuggle a kid before?”  
“No, That’s a first.” Just like that, Joel’s smile disappeared. “So what’s the deal between y'all and Marlene, anyways? An’ how do you know Tess?”  
“Tess saved my ass on Outbreak Day. I was with her for two years before we got separated. A few months after that, a Firefly came and saved my ass again. Thus, I met Marlene.” I did a little motion with my hands to prove my point.  
“So you what? You joined the Fireflies and became good friends with Marlene?” Joel had craned his head to look back at me. He had one brow raised, “Did you leave because you had to raise a kid? How old is she anyway, twelve?”   
“Hey, I’m fourteen! Not that has anything to do with… anything.”  
I smiled at Ellie’s reaction. “Ellie isn’t mine biologically. I knew her mom really well. She died and I decided that the QZ would be a better place to raise her than a Firefly base. And I didn’t join the Fireflies. I helped out when I could. I wasn’t considered a member of the group. Quite frankly, I never gave a fuck about all her new world bullshit.”  
“And so you just have been hanging out with the leader of the Fireflies. Is that it?”  
“Look, we're not supposed to tell you why you’re smuggling us if that’s what you’re getting at.” Ellie’s voice held that typical ‘I’m so done’ tone every teenager has.  
“You wanna know the best thing about my job? I don’t gotta know why. Be honest with you, I could give two shits about what you’re up to.”  
“Well, great”  
“Good.”  
“Would you two cut it out?” I let out a sigh as I pinched the bridge of my nose, “We’re obviously going to be around each other for the next several hours. I would like it to be a little peaceful. I can’t do that if you two are picking on each other while also giving each other death glares. Children.” I whispered that last part under my breath.  
In response to my outburst, I got two glares thrown my way. I just rolled my eyes. This was going to be a long trip to the Capitol.  
We reached a room soon after that ordeal. Joel opened the door and motioned us in.  
“This is it.” Joel said as he shut the door behind us.   
I examined the room. It was an old apartment. A couch was to my left. Right next to it there was an old armchair. Someone must have moved it because it was facing the window. Behind the couch was a door that probably led to a bedroom. This place seemed cozy.  
“Uh, what are you doing?’ Ellie’s voice drew my attention to her.  
Seeing that she was looking at Joel, I switched my gaze to the man. He had found himself a place on the couch. Lifted to rest on the armrest, his arm dangled in the air. His head was laying on a pillow. He had practically taken up the whole couch. Wow, what an asshole move.  
“Killing time.” Closing his eyes, Joel let out a content sigh.  
“Well, what are we supposed to do.” Ellie stood there in disbelief.  
“I am sure you’ll figure that out.”  
Scoffing, Ellie looked to me. I couldn’t help but smile. The whole situation was funny to me. Why? I couldn’t tell you. It just was humorous to me. Ellie shoved me.  
“Stop laughing.”  
“I will when you two stop acting like children.”  
With another scoff, Ellie was walking away from me. She sat down on the armchair. To entertain herself, she decided to watch life go on outside.   
Following her, I sat down on the floor in front of the chair. I leaned my head back so that it rested against Ellie’s legs. I closed my eyes for a while. The things that happened in the last month dominated my thoughts.  
When I opened my eyes, I grabbed one of Ellie's hands. I placed it on my head. “Play with my hair, will you? Like you did when you were little.”  
“Okay.” She pulled my hair out of its hair tie. As she messed with my hair, I closed my eyes and just relaxed.  
Before the outbreak, I loved it when my sisters or friends played with my hair. It was the best feeling in the world. When Ellie became a toddler, she would always mess with it. I loved those moments.  
“So, I now know how you met Tess, but how do you know who Joel is. You two seem to be somewhat acquainted.” Ellie brushed some of my hair into my face.  
I chuckled. “So, that Walkman of yours. I hired him to find it for me.”  
“Wait, you mean you’ve known him for over a year?”  
“Yeah. He, uh… He also was sort of that thing I had the night you ran off.”  
“Oh.” Ellie’s hands stopped where they were, “Ar-are you two a thing?”  
“No, we’re just… He sells me stuff he finds on his smuggling jobs. That’s all it is. In fact, those cassette tapes I gave you was something I got from him.”  
“Oh, good.” Ellie breathed out.  
“Good? What do you mean ‘good’? Are you not okay with me dating?”   
Ellie sighed, “No, I’m just glad it wasn’t him. He gets on my nerves. It’s like he has something against me.”  
“It’s not that. He’s just annoyed that he had to babysit us.”  
“Yeah, well, he needs to deal with it. It's not like we want to be with him any more than he does.”  
“Ellie, let the man be. You won’t have to deal with him much longer. You can be civil for a couple of hours.” With that, our conversation ended.

X_x

I must have fallen asleep. Ellie was still running her hands through my hair. What had woken me up was Joel and Ellie’s talking. Thankfully, it sounded like they were getting along.  
“Ya know, I’ve never been this close… to the outside.” I felt Ellie move her hand. She must have motioned to the window.  
I decided to open my eyes and get up. I had been sitting on the floor for so long that my ass had grown numb. Upon sitting up, Joel and Ellie glance at me. It was brief.  
I watched as Joel walked over to turn on a lamp. That made me realize how dark it had gotten. Then I noticed the rimjhim; it had started to rain.  
“Look how dark it is.”  
“That’s what it's like with no street lights.” I laughed as she glared at me.  
“No, but seriously. It can’t be any worse out there… can it?” Ellie pulled herself off of the chair. She was facing Joel.  
“What on earth do the Fireflies want with you?”   
Right at that moment, Tess walked in. Preventing Ellie or me from replying. Soaked in rainwater, Tess dripped on the floor. She quickly closed the apartment door.  
“Hey, sorry it took so long. Soldiers are fuckin’ everywhere.” Coming to stand beside me, Tess eyed our tense bodies.  
Grabbing Tess’ attention, Ellie said, “How’s Marlene?”   
“She’ll make it.” Tess turned back to Joel, “I saw the merchandise. It's a lot.” Tess was smirking while she nodded her head. She quickly glimpsed at Ellie and me then back to Joel, “You wanna do this?”  
With a single nod, Joel answered, “Yeah.”  
“Let’s go.” Tess took the lead as we all followed her into the next room.  
Two large windows were to the right. Tess stopped in front of them and surveyed the outside. From what I could see, there weren’t too many soldiers. I knew better though. They hide well.  
“Don’t you think it’s a bit strange that they’re having us do their smugglin’?” Joel aimed at Tess.  
“Marlene wanted to do it herself. We weren’t their first choice. Or the second, for that matter.” Tess looked at me. I just shrugged at her.  
“Don’t look at me. I was told the bare minimum.”  
Joel looked at me, “You two having a falling out or something?”   
“That’s one way of putting it. But no, I guess she figured she’d be with us, so why bother?”  
“Yeah, well, she forgot to consider an ambush. She’s lost a lot of men. Hiring the two of us? Well, Beggars can’t be choosers.”  
“Yeah, let’s just hope there’s someone alive ta pay us.”  
“Don’t worry. Someone will be around.” I patted Joel's arm.  
Behind us, was a massive hole in the wall. It was hidden pretty well by a bookshelf. Tess pushed the bookshelf away and motioned for Ellie and me to go through it. I struggled with my backpack. Using my leg muscles, I pushed my torso through. I could hear the loud scrape as my backpack dragged on the wall.  
On the other side of the Wall, there was an elevator platform. Wires from it led to a generator. When Joel came through he walked up to the generator and turned it on. Joel, now on the platform, pressed a button which prompted us to move down.  
Looking back at Tess, he asked, “Who’s waiting for us at the drop-off?”  
“She said there’s some Fireflies that have travel all the way from another city. Girl must be important.” Tess looked over at Ellie, “What’s the deal with you? You some big-wig’s daughter or something?”  
I let out a laugh. “Something like that.”  
“What’s that supposed to mean? Is she yours?”  
“Yeah.”  
Tess scoffed. “I didn’t think I’d ever see the day that you actually settled down. Is it your husband that wants you two escorted to safety?”  
“No, I am still very much single. We have a mission and I can’t go into much detail.”  
“Yeah, okay. Whatever.”  
The elevator came to a stop. Joel motioned for us to keep moving. I watched as Ellie followed Joel closely. Finding my place beside Tess, I gave her a reassuring pat on the arm.  
“Nothing personal, okay? I just don’t want you get into this mess.”  
“We’re good. Just… find a way to contact me when you get to where you’re going.”  
“Will do.”  
We came upon another crater in the wall. This one, however, was much smaller than the other. We’d have to crouch down and crawl through it. As far as I could tell, this one was a long winding tunnel. This wouldn’t be too big of a problem if it weren’t for the fact that I didn’t like tight spaces.  
I wasn’t claustrophobic per se, but that didn’t mean that I liked to be in tiny areas. I just hoped that we could get through it quickly. That way I don’t have to deal with the discomfort for long.   
“How long is this all gonna to take?” Ellie groaned.  
Joel was the first one to enter the tunnel. I followed after him. Then Ellie and then Tess.   
“If everything goes as planned, we should get you to them in a few hours.”  
“Ellie, once we’re out there I need you to stay close. Make sure you are always near one of us, okay?” I tried to add an urgency to my voice. I didn’t want her to get stranded out there.  
“Yes, yes. Don’t worry about me.”  
“I will always worry about you. You’re my kid.” I heard Joel scoff at my comment.  
Finally, we reached the end. I was overjoyed to be able to stand up. I watched as Ellie and Tess clambered out from the tunnel. As she stood up, Tess asked Joel to check if the coast was clear.  
He climbed up the ladder in the room and pushed away a large sheet of wood covering the exit. Seconds passed as Joel scoured the area for any FEDRA soldiers.  
“Now hold up.” Joel looked down at us, “There’s a patrol up ahead.” Joel had us wait for a minute or two. “Alright, we’re good. Come on up.” With that, Joel was climbing the rest of the way up.  
I was the next one to go. When everyone was out, Joel moved the wooden board back into its place.  
We were finally outside. It was still raining and the city lights were glowing in the night’s darkness. I hoped that this wouldn’t take too long. I would prefer not to get sick.  
“This rain ain’t gonna do us any good.” Joel voiced beside me.  
I flashed him a small smile. “I was just thinking the same thing.”   
We stood there for a second. The two of us looked at each other. We shared a smile. There was an awkward pause.  
How the fuck did I get myself in this predicament? The odds of everything seemed so unreal. I mentally chuckled at my situation. Joel knew Tess. The two knew Marlene who knew Joel because of Tommy. I found our circumstances hilarious.  
Snapping out of our stare, I watched the other two party members. They mustn’t have been paying attention because they had walked on. Joel was the first one to move.  
“Holy shit… I’m actually outside.” The breathy tone in Ellie’s voice confused me.  
“Have you really wanted to come out here that bad?”  
“Dunno. I never really thought about it. Now that I actually am... It’s different. I can’t quite tell if I like it or not.”  
“Trust me, kid. You’ll know soon enough.” Joel said looking at Ellie. Turning back, Joel led us up a fallen truck, “Up this way.”  
Taking one step out, Joel was reprimanded by a soldier. She slammed the butt of her gun into Joel’s skull. He fell to the ground. I stood there like a deer caught in headlights.  
“Don’t do anything stupid.” She kept her gun aimed at me.  
“Move.” A man’s voice rang out from behind.  
I slowly walked out of the truck with my hands raised in the air. I made sure that Ellie ended up right beside me. If they tried anything, I would guarantee that she made it out alright.  
“You scan ‘em. I’ll call it in.”  
“Alright.”  
I went down on my knees with Joel to my right and Ellie to my left. I watched Ellie as she fell to the ground. She shared the same facial expression of everyone else.  
I sat there and panicked. There wasn’t any way to prevent this from happening. I had a knife in my boot but, if I reached for it, they would immediately shoot me down. Next to me, I eyed Ellie. I looked at her pocket. A metal handle poked out. It was her knife. I figured that was a little more accessible to me. If worse came to wear, I would grab it and stab the soldier. I would only hope that we’d make it out.  
“Put your hands on your head.” The male soldier demanded.  
Each of us followed his order. Looking at Tess, I watched as she tried to bribe the soldier into letting us go. He didn’t even listen to her and only told her to shut up. Scanning Joel and me, the soldier finally got to Ellie.  
“I’m getting tired of this shit.” The soldier groaned. Hummed in agreement. “What’s the ETA?”  
“A couple of minutes.”  
“Oh, man. Oh, man.” Ellie mumbled under her breath.  
When the scanner beeped, I was moving. In a flash, my fingers were wrapped around the hilt of the knife. I dove forward and drove it into the male soldier’s thigh.  
The other soldier shot at me but Tess turned around and shot at her. Joel, in a flash, was on top of the male soldier and shooting a bullet into his head. We all sat there for a second.  
“Oh, fuck! I thought we were gonna hold them up or something.” Ellie had scooted back to lean against a crate. She took a few puffs of air. I had moved to sit next to her. I slid her knife back into her pocket.  
I rubbed Ellie’s back as the two of us calmed down. She leaned her head on my shoulder. Looking away from Ellie, I watched as Tess shook out her limbs while Joel pulled himself up.  
That’s when Tess reached down and grabbed the scanner off the ground. I made a sound as I shot up. Before I could grab the scanner out of her hands, Tess read Elie’s results. It flashed “infected” in red angry words.  
“Oh, shit.” She threw it to Joel.  
Tess threw a glare my way. Her eyes were squinted while her mouth was a tight line. I raised my hands up. I was about to explain when Joel spoke.  
“Jesus Christ. Marlene set us up?” Joel walked closer to Tess. All she could do in response was scoff in disbelief.  
I had moved back next to Ellie. I knew they were going to try something. I didn’t blame them. This was rarely a legitimate thing.  
Whipping his head toward us, Joel eyed me. “Why the hell are we smuggling an infected girl?” Walking closer I noticed the harsh scowl spread across his features.  
“She’s not infected!”  
“No? So was this lyin’?” Joel threw the scanner beside me.  
“We can explain.”  
Tess walked towards us and said, “You better explain fast.” I could hear her gun click.  
Ellie rolled up her sleeve and displayed her arm to the smugglers. “Look at this!”  
“I don’t care how you got infected.” Joel dismissed with his hand.  
“It’s three weeks old,” Ellie said as she shook her arm.  
Tess shook her head and pointed her gun towards the ground. “No, everyone turns within three days so you stop bullshitting.”  
“She’s not! It’s three weeks old. I was with her the entire time. I swear.”  
“Why would she set you up?” Ellie questioned. Looking at her, I could see that her face was all scrunched up.  
Tess and Joel scoffed and looked at each other. Shaking his head, Joel looked away. He turned his back to us.  
“I ain’t byin’ it.”   
There was a pause. Suddenly, there were two headlights heading our way.  
“Oh, shit. Tess, run.” Reaching out to her, he yelled, “Run!”  
I threw myself up and Tess grabbed my arm. As she dragged me with her, I made sure to grip onto Ellie. We chased after Joel who was a few feet ahead of us. We jumped into a pit just as the FEDRA vehicles arrived.  
“Holy shit!”  
“I got two dead uniforms. I repeat I got two casualties in Sector Twelve. Requesting immediate backup.” I could faintly hear the commotion we had caused. There was no going back now.  
Traversing around the outside we came upon the Boston QZ wall, There was a spotlight that surveyed the area.  
“Follow me, quickly.” Tess had us hiding behind a fallen cement pillar. “Alright Y/N, when I give you the signal, we run.”  
“You got it.”  
A second passed as the spotlight moved away from our position. As soon as it was out of the way, Tess was signaling us to run. The four of us took off. We found cover in some trenches.  
“Soldiers over there.” Tess nodded in their direction.  
“I see ‘em. I see ‘em.”  
I watched as these two worked. They were a well-oiled machine. I remember when Tess and I were like that. It had been a while since I had been in these kinds of situations. In a way, I was sort of glad Tess found a job where she could have this kind of excitement in her life.  
It was hard but we successfully maneuvered to a more secure place. We were somewhere underground. I could tell that this must be a place where Joel and Tess had been holed up. There were all kinds of supplies here. We grabbed what we could and moved on.   
Coming upon a large pipe, Joel called for us to follow him. The pipe led into some sort of sewage service room. On display in front of us was a pool of thick murky water. Without a thought, Joel walked through the polluted water.   
I couldn’t convince myself to cross the unholy pond. Eventually, Tess had to push me in order for me to move. Gagging, I raised my arms in the air. Any part of me that didn’t have to get wet, I would prevent from getting soaked.  
Joel was about halfway through the room when he stopped. A loud rumbling came from a truck.   
“whoa, whoa, whoa. Hang on.” Joel motioned for us to stop.   
Tess and Ellie were still in the pipe while I was behind Joel in the pool of nasty below me. Looking up, I watched as the truck passed overhead. We stood there for a few more seconds before we were moving again.  
At the end of the room was a grate. A service door was built into the grate. That was our way out. Joel had some difficulty opening it. When he did open it, he was walking out into the night.  
Finally out, I took a huge breath. The fresh air was a blessing compared to the smell of sewage. Beside me, Ellie sat down on a rock. She looked to be enjoying the nice change as well.  
I stood closer to her. I patted her shoulder and flashed her a questioning look. When she saw what I was asking, She nodded her head. She was okay. With a smile, I smoothed down her hair.  
“Alright, they’re gone.” Joel said as he studied the road above us.  
Both Tess and Joel whipped their heads towards Ellie and I. The two just stood there and eyed us. Tess made the first move.  
She walked closer. Her eyes switched between us. “Look, what was the plan? Let’s say that we deliver you to the Fireflies. What then?”  
Ellie looked at me. I nodded for her to answer.  
“Marlene… She said that they have their own little quarantine zone with doctors there: still trying to find a cure.”  
“Yeah, we’ve heard that before, huh Tess?”  
Ellie and I scoffed at Joel’s comment. He looked at me. His eyes softened ever so slightly. I rolled my eyes and focused on what Ellie told Tess.  
“And that…” She let out an unbelieving breath, “Whatever happened to me is the key to finding a vaccine.” Shaking her head she leaned down with her arms on her legs.  
I stood there. I let my hands smooth down her hair. This was a lot for her. It was a lot for all of us but she was going through the most. She was the one who was immune.  
“Oh, Jesus.” Another scoff left Joel. He looked away with an eye roll.  
“It’s what she said.”  
“Oh, I’m sure she did.”  
“Hey, fuck you, man! I didn’t ask for this!” Pushing herself up, she glared at Joel.   
“Me neither.” Joel glared right back at her.  
I tried pulling Ellie back down but she just pulled away and glared at me. I raised my eyebrows. With a scoff, she directed her gaze to the ground.  
“Tess, what the hell are we doing here?” Joel stepped up towards Tess.  
“What if it’s true?”  
“I can’t-” He glanced at Ellie while backing up.  
Chasing after him, Tess questioned, “What if, Joel? I mean, we’ve come this far. Let’s just finish it.”  
“Do I need to remind you what is out there?” Joel furiously pointed towards the city.  
I stood there watching all this happen. I didn’t know what to do. If they did leave us, then I’d have to find my own way around to the Capitol. I don’t even know if there were Fireflies there waiting for us. They could be dead for all I knew. At the thought, I grasped Ellie’s hand and squeezed it.  
Tess and Joel looked towards us. Their gazes lingered on Ellie. Shaking her head, Tess looked back at Joel. She shook her head and scoffed.  
“I get it.” Tess’ gaze returned and lingered on Joel. She was giving the same unpleasant look he was giving her.  
Without another word, Tess was walking towards the downtown area. Ellie followed after her. She held Joel’s stare as she walked away. I followed after her only I slowed sown to lightly brushed Joel’s arm as I passed him.   
He looked at me. I motioned for him to follow us. It took him a moment but eventually, I felt him brush my arm as he walked beside me.  
Tess pointed to a sign that was hanging on for dear life. “This way. If we cut through downtown. We can hit the Capitol building by sunrise.”  
“We hope,” Joel mumbled.  
We walked under an old highway bridge and traversed over its crumpled remains. The rain had begun to pool and it flowed down the crumpled bits of the bridge and road.  
“Holy moly! I guess that’s what these buildings look like up close. They’re so damn tall.” You could hear that Ellie was smiling as she talked.  
Sure enough, there was a smile on her face. Her head was tilted all the way up to examine the massive, dilapidated buildings. I forgot she had never really seen these things up close. It was cute how she was amazed by such little things.  
Pressing on, we got to a part of the road which had been ripped up. It was slanted. This made things a little hard with the rain. As I struggled to climb up the slippery slope, I heard a few shrieks out in the distance.  
“Uhhh, what the hell was that?” I heard Ellie shout behind me.  
I moved so I could walk next to Tess, “DId you hear that?”  
“Yeah, sounded pretty far away though.”  
“Shit.” Joel was looking around to find any traces of infected.  
“Are we safe?”  
“For now. Come on.” Tess motioned for Ellie to catch up to her.  
Finally, making up the ramp, We came upon a drop. It was deep. It had to be at least a hundred feet drop. No way were we crossing that.  
Ellie came to stop next to me, “Damn, that’s quite a drop. This is the Downtown area?”  
“It was. Now it’s a giant wasteland.”  
Joel noted the Capitol building that we could see in the distance. Tess claimed that we needed to find an alternate way to the place. Joel and Ellie ran off in search of a new path. Before I could follow them, Tess pulled me aside.   
“Hey.”  
“Hi.”  
“So, uh… How have you been?”  
I chuckled. “Well, for the last fourteen years, I’ve been raising a kid. Before that, my ass was saved by none other than Miss Queen FIrefly. I met Ellie’s biological mom and the rest is history. You?”  
“I, uh. I found this oaf and his brother Tommy. We were together until Tommy left for the Fireflies. To think if I had gone with him I would have found you. I thought you had died back at that hotel. And when I found Joel, all plans of going to Boston left. We did some pretty bad stuff. After that, we ended up in Boston.”  
I was about to make a comment about all the shit we’ve done but We got hollered at by Joel. He said he found a shortcut through one of the crumpled skyscrapers. With a huff, I wandered over to Joel and Ellie.


	4. Chapter 3: Tess' Fate

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You finally make it to the Capitol but something goes very wrong.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, it’s here. It’s out. I was swamped with work and school yesterday and Sunday I had some commitments that prevented me from editing and uploading this bad boy. I pretty much edited this sucker in class this morning and I can finally start writing the next part. The next chapter might be a little last this week but I’ll try my hardest to get it out ASAP! Hope you guys are doing well, enjoy!

Once we had entered the building, the four of us got to work. We scoured the place for supplies while also looking for a way out. I found quite a few supplies for homemade medkits. I would hope that we wouldn’t need to use them but it was always a good thing to have extra, just in case.  
Joel, close by, called out for us. He had found a dead FEDRA soldier. He had been ripped to shreds. Kind of like the kid I saw on Outbreak Day. Tess had concluded that the body was pretty fresh. This meant that we all could possibly be in a very exciting situation soon.  
I didn’t realize how many stairs we’d be climbing today. By the fifth flight, I was out of breath. I didn’t realize how out of shape I had become. Oh, this trip was going to be nothing but me needing a break every five minutes.  
Joel had taken up the front with Ellie behind him. Tess at some point had come to walk next to me. It almost felt like old times. It was as if nothing had really changed. Falling back to old routines, I was quite surprised how easy it was.  
“So, how do you know Joel.” Tess had leaned down to grab a can of pears.  
“I hired him for a job a little over a year ago. I wanted to get Ellie a Walkman and I heard he was the man to get me one.”  
“Wait. So you’re the one he punched a guy for?”  
“What?”  
“Oh, yeah. We were doing some smuggling jobs when we came upon a traveling trader. Joel wanted to trade something for this guy’s Walkman and well, the guy refused him. Joel pretty much threatened the guy and needless to say, he got the Walkman. I never understood why he wanted it so badly. I guess your job was important to him.”  
“That’s funny. He acted as if it was nothing.” As the meaning of that sunk in, a short silence washed over us.  
“That all? You two seem a lot closer to have only done the one trade.”  
“Oh, no. We became pretty close business partners. He’d offer me random shit he found while he was working with you. He had given me this weird-ass lava lamp one time. He thought that Ellie would like it. Another time, he brought me a really nice dagger. It was sharp as hell and it also had a pretty handle. I keep it tucked away in my boot at all times.” I pulled out the knife and showed it to her.  
With my dagger in her hands, Tess commented, “So you’re the one he’d get all excited to see. That’s kind of cute”  
“Wait, what? What do you mean cute?” I flashed Tess a smirk, “Ha-”  
“Tess, Y/N? We got a problem over here.” Joel shouted from the room next to us.  
When Tess and I reached the room, I saw a clicker who had practically grown all over our exit. The fungus had not only covered the infected but the door and the wall next to the door. Thankfully, it wasn’t emitting spores which was kinda nice. Ellie beside me had her face all scrunched up as she eyed the thing.  
Joel stepped up to it and ripped the monster off the door. “Fucking clicker.” He grumbled.  
“Geez… What’s wrong with its face?”  
“It’s what years of infection will do to you.” I told Ellie.  
“So, what? Are they… blind?”  
Tess chimed in with, “Sort of, they see using sound.”  
“Basically, echolocation.”  
“Like bats?”  
“Just like bats. If you hear one clicking, you gotta hide. That’s how they spot you.” Ellie nodded at my comment with wide eyes.  
While Tess and I gave Ellie an impromptu lesson, Joel attempted to get the door open. After a few tries, Joel broke through and shoved the door open.  
We were moving again. We found the usual. There were a few things that we had to jump over. Thus, making the whole room shift and the entire building made some concerning noises.   
We passed through the hallway only for another door to block our path. Joel tried opening it but it wouldn’t budge. Tess jumped in to help him. With the effort from both of them, the door swung open.   
On the other side of the door was a large metal desk. When the door came crashing open, the desk screeched as it was moved. It fell off a ledge not too far from the door.   
Next thing we knew, a clicker jumped out of nowhere. It immediately attacked Joel. Leaping onto him, it shoved him to the ground. Tess shouted at Joel. Running up, Tess kicked the clicker off of him and shot it. I walked over to help Joel up.   
“You good?” I questioned.  
“Yeah,” Joel looked at Tess, “Thanks...” His breath was labored. He had yet to grasp what just happened.  
“Are you sure you’re alright?” Ellie came to stand next to me.  
“It’s nothin’.”   
Ellie took a deep breath, “Shit, that was intense.”   
“You said it.” Chuckled Tess.  
With that taken care of, we maneuvered around the building some more. I had begun to wonder if we were ever going to make it out of this place. It seemed as if it was never-ending.  
We came upon more dead soldiers. We had Tess check if the coast was clear. It was. Ellie went up and I followed after her. Tess and I worked together to get Joel up.  
As soon as Joel was up, a clicker made itself known. Joel pulled Ellie and me to hide behind a set of desks. It took a while, but we successfully escaped the clicker.  
We made it to another set of stairs. I groaned. I really needed to get into shape. Especially if this is what awaited me in the future. We walked down not even a full flight of steps before we came upon a blockade.   
Tess and I stood by the window as we came up with a new plan. I saw that Tess was eyeing the window. Most of the glass was broken which let us get a clear view as to what was hanging outside it. Just outside the window, slightly swaying, was an old platform for window maintenance.  
I eyed Tess, “Are you thinkin’ what I’m thinkin’?”  
“Unfortunately… Ah, this is crazy.” Tess clambered onto the platform. “Just, don’t look down.” I couldn’t tell if she said that to reassure us or herself.  
I was the next person to get on the platform. Yeah, this was insane but we had to do something. I watched as Tess hopped from the platform we were on to one that was slightly below it.  
“Oh my gosh, Tess! I-Oh my gosh!”  
“Hey, I made it. You can too. Be careful!”  
I followed her actions and made it to the next one. It shook a little. As it shook, I stopped my tracks. No way. I hated this. I wanted to get off this thing as soon as possible. I knew this was insane. Why did I do this?  
When I clambered to a tangible part of the building, I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. Never again.  
Realizing Ellie went after me, I cracked my eyes open and whipped my head to her. My eyes never left her form as she scrambled to safety.  
“Now, Ellie be careful!”  
“I am, mom!” Ellie let out a long breath, “Oh god. This is scary.”  
Everyone made it okay. I was elated when we had gotten back inside the skyscraper, I pulled Ellie into a bone-crushing hug. Burying my head in her hair, I just clutched her to me.  
“We’re never doing that again. My heart can’t take it.”  
After that thrilling series of events, our group reached a particularly wrecked part of the building. The closer we got, the more I realized that the infected infested the area.  
“I’ll go check it out. You girls stay here.” With that, Joel was sneaking away.  
We stood there for some time. Ellie had moved back to the room we just came from. She was looking out the window. Tess and I stood where we were and watched as Joel did his thing.  
“So, what were you going to say before we got interrupted back there?”  
“Oh, um… You said something about Joel being cute. I was just wondering if you finally found someone that can handle your ass.”  
“Oh, we’re not a thing.” Tess quietly chuckled. I gave her an incredulous look. “I swear. I mean, we’ve helped each other out. It’s more like a ‘I’ll scratch your back if you’ll scratch mine’ sort of a thing. Nothing more, nothing less. Though, I’ve seen how you two have acted.” A smirk was sent my way.  
I rolled my eyes. “We only know each other as buyer and seller. Yeah, there have been a few lingering stares and hand brushes. I didn’t really think that it would become anything, though.”  
“But you find him attractive?”  
“Of course I do. Anyone with eyes can see that. He just doesn’t seem like the type that’s into a committed relationship. So, I never said anything.”  
“Well, I know that man. There’s something going on with him and you. I will say though, he’s been through some shit. He….” Tess paused. She looked to be debating whether or not to tell me something, “He had a daughter. She died that first night. Back when Tommy was with us, he informed me that it eats him up. He’s just protecting himself. Once you et him to open up, he’s really not that bad.”  
“You’re talking about this as if we’re going to be seeing a lot of each other. Tess, after this… I don’t know if we’ll ever come back. It’s all up in the air.”  
“I know. I just… I’m hopeful.”  
A small smile found its way to my face. She was smiling back. Looking back at Ellie, I could see that she was right where she was last time. She was so fascinated by the outside. I’d have to see if Marlene could set something up for her.  
“She’s a tough kid. I like her.”  
“Yeah? She’s got a lot of her biological mom in her.”  
“She’s also got some of you in her. The way she holds herself and boy does she have your mouth!”  
“Oh, hush.” We both shared a knowing grin.   
“You’ve got yourself into some shit but I think you two will be alright.”  
I gave Tess a side hug. I really missed her. It made me hope deep down that we’ll come back. That at some point I’ll see her again and we can be a team just like the old times.  
Joel, eventually, called for us. He told us the place was clear and we all could head down. Tess went down while I grabbed Ellie.

x_x

Tess and Joel were now ahead of Ellie and I. They were talking quietly with each other. I wasn’t really paying much attention. I was too busy admiring the beauty that came with the chaos of this place. Yes, it was horrible what they did to the city, but I couldn’t help but see the sort of beauty in the aftermath.  
“This is insane.” Voiced Ellie.  
“Yeah, but it’s kinda pretty though.”  
“I can see it.”  
“So, how are you doing?”  
‘I-I’m okay. Still trying to wrap my head around some things.”  
“Me too, kiddo. Hey, as soon as we get to the group at the Capitol, we can calm down a little. They can do all the hard stuff. We won’t have to worry about a damn thing. I’m also hoping we can get a full night’s rest. Man, do I need it.”  
“Your mom is showing.”  
“Well kid, I need my sleep. I’m only thirty-four but damn are all-nighters harder than they used to be.”  
Ellie snorts, “I can’t imagine what Joel’s going through.”  
“What’s that?”  
“How did you? You know what, nevermind.”  
Joel eyed me. I simply gave him a shrug. With a frown, Joel shook his head and moved on.  
We had reached an old subway station. There was a Firefly corpse at the entrance of it. A few feet ahead there was another dead Firefly. We found a note explaining that they were from the quarantine zone.  
This calmed my nerves. I was beginning to worry. If they weren’t at the Capitol, there was no way of us knowing where to go. If only Marlene had told us where to go. I’d wouldn’t have to worry so much. Even with the reassurance, I was still a little warry. Something was off to me.  
Further, into the subway, we came upon a large horde of clickers. Their clicking sent shivers up my spine and left an unsettling feeling in my stomach.   
Tess told Elie to stick with Joel. I got a look from Ellie. Nodding in reassurance, I watched as she did what Tess said and followed Joel. I stuck with Tess.   
Sneaking around the dead, we found some surprisingly well-kept supplies. Joel had even found a safe filled with goodies. When we found the exit, we noticed there was a clicker guarding it. With quick movements, Joel took out the clicker.   
“This way.” He whispered. “We’re almost out of this, come on.”  
Motioning to Tess, Joel boosted her up. Tess grabbed a ladder that was sitting on a ledge above us. First Tess, Ellie, then Joel all went up. Since I was the last up, I made sure to let the thing drop. I didn’t want to chance any clickers climbing up it.-  
“Holy shit! We actually made it!” Ellie struggled to get out due to her quick and shallow breaths.  
“Everyone okay?” Joel eyed each of us. His eyes lingered on me.  
I was about to say something when Tess said it for me, “Yes, let’s move.”  
“You guys are pretty good at this stuff. I’ve never seen my mom do stuff like that.”  
“Pfft,” I shoved her lightly.  
Tess chuckled at us. “Kid, you should’ve seen your mom back in the day. She did some pretty impressive things.”  
“That’s right. Don’t think for a second that I’m an incapable old woman. I got skills.”  
“I’ll believe it when I see it.” Ellie scoffed.  
I smirked at Ellie. It went away when Joel spoke up.  
“That back there? It was luck. Sooner or later it’s gonna run out.”   
A scoff came from Ellie, “Okay, Mr. grouchy pants.”  
“Y/N…” Joel grumbled.  
“Joel…”  
Coming to several blockades, We tried to figure out where we were going.   
“Which way are we going, Tess?” Joel had stopped in the middle of the blockade and waited for Tess to respond.  
“Uh, Capitol building is this way.”  
Killing a few infected, I found some sort of portable cabinet. I pushed the thing against the truck. Finally, able to get over it, I climbed up first. Tess noted that the infected we had just killed were recently infected. We moved as quickly as we could. Joel found an old garage door.  
Gripping on the chain he started to open the door. It made loud squeaks each time he tugged the chain. Nearby, Tess and I could hear the groans and shouts of the infected. We looked at each other with wide eyes.  
I looked back at Joel, “Joel!”  
“What,” He stopped.  
“Double time, come on!”  
At that Joel started pulling the chain as quickly as he could. When the door was open enough, I motioned for Ellie to go in. The infected had found us and were climbing over the truck. Tess and I slid under and held the door for Joel. He dove through it just in enough time.  
“Drop it!”  
There were maybe a dozen of them out there. Each one of them was banging on the garage door. The loud bangs made each of us cringe as we slowly backed away. Joel, Tess, and I shared a look. That was too close.  
“Oh, you got something on your shoe…”  
All our eyes went to Where Ellie pointed. There, hanging onto Joel’s shoe, was a hand. He kicked it off with a grunt.   
Seeing the humor in the situation, I grinned at Ellie. She grinned back.  
Moving on, we scavenged around the place for more supplies. It was as if we didn’t find enough in the skyscraper. As we searched, Tess decided to bring up a conversation with Ellie.  
“So Marlene thinks you’re immune?”  
“Well, that’s what she believes.”  
Joel chuckled mockingly as we searched the place. Glancing at him, I could see that he rolled his eyes as he shook his head. Oh, he needs to give it up.  
“Well, how were you bitten? You must’ve been somewhere you shouldn’t to find an infected in the zone.”  
I laughed at Tess’ question. Both Joel and Tess looked at me.  
“That’s a funny one. Ya see I went out to speak to this one.” I pointed to Joel. “I told her that I’d only be an hour. I made her promise to me that she’d be okay. Only to find her missing when I got back.”  
“I’m sorry, okay.” Ellie looked at me before turning to look at Tess, “I was in the mall when I ran into infected.”  
“That place is off-limits. How the hell did you get in there?”  
“I… had my ways. Anyways one of those, what you guys call runners, bit me. And that was that.”  
“You must have been scared shitless.” Tess said to me, “How’d you find her?”  
“I was terrified! I went to Marlene. She and I searched the city for hours. We ended up finding a lead and we followed it to her.”  
“I’m surprised Marlene didn’t shoot her on sight.”  
“She almost did.” Ellie’s eyes were distant.  
“I shut that shit down. No way in hell was I gonna let that happen!” As I spoke, I heard Joel make a strangled sound. It was almost like a cry/grunt.   
What Tess told me made earlier made me think. Joel must have encountered something like that with his daughter. I felt sorry for the man. I couldn’t imagine what he had to go through. I came close but I doubt it was anything like his experience.  
“I hope she’s alright.” Ellie noted her concern for Marlene.  
Tess placed a hand on Ellie’s shoulder. “I told you. She’s gonna be fine.”  
Making our way out of the garage, we ended up in some kind of basement. In the next room, the ceiling had fallen down which provided for a nice ramp into the upstairs. Joel led the way.  
Ellie was looking around as we made our way to the ramp. Right as Joel made it up, there was a crash. The sound of broken glass echoed in the room. The adults looked back to see that Ellie had broken an old vase.  
Looking at me, Joel sighed. I shrugged. He turned around and shook his head.  
“Sorry!” Ellie whisper-yelled.  
I motioned Ellie over. “Come on. Let’s get moving.”   
A few minutes later, We came upon our first obstacle. The doorway into the next room was blocked. Joel found a wooden pillar to lift to make a way for us to squeeze through. Deciding I’d be nice, I helped him lift it. Tess and Ellie made their way through. RIght as we were about to hand it off to the two, the whole thing came crashing down. Joel grabbed me and pulled us away from the crash.  
Tess’ head popped through a hole in the doorway. “Joel? Joel!”  
“Mom? Mom are you okay?” Ellie shouted beside Tess.  
“We’re alive!”  
“I’m okay, Ellie!” Joel and I spoke at the same time.  
“We’ll make our way around to you.”  
That’s when the shrieking and the clicking bounced off the walls. My eyes widened as I became paralyzed. The closer it got, the more I realized that it was growing louder in the other room with Ellie and Tess.  
“Oh! Look they’re here!”  
“Tess?” Joel shouted.   
I broke out of my fear-induced state. “Ellie?” I shouted.  
“Run. RUn!” Tess pushed Ellie to move.  
Beside me, Joel whispered, “Shit.”  
“Oh, fuck. Joel.” I had grabbed onto his arm. My eyes were wide and my breathing picked up.  
“Hey,” He lightly brushed my hand. “Come on. We gotta get to them. Don’t freak out on me now.” Joel pulled himself up.  
Taking a deep breath, I followed after him. Once we were out of the demolished hallway, we came upon several rooms that were crawling with clickers. Thankfully, they weren’t aware of our presence.  
“Tess?” Joel whispered. There was no replay.  
As we snuck around the clickers, we maneuvered through a bunch of fallen bits of the ceiling. I could imagine this place was pretty cool before the outbreak. It was a museum. That much I had gathered. Most of the items on display looked to be from either the eighteenth or nineteenth century. It was some old shit.  
While We traversed the museum, I admired Joel. He was determined. I could tell he really cared for Tess. I didn’t know what he thought of me but I knew that he at least didn’t want me dead. Ellie on the other hand… I don’t really know what his problem was.   
It obviously had something to do with his dead daughter. I guess even after twenty years he hadn’t given much time to process what happened and to heal. Totally understandable though.  
With both of us combined, we were unstoppable. We each took clickers one at a time. Joel had made several shivs while I had the dagger he had found for me.  
“You still have that thing?”  
“Yeah, of course I do. I think it looks pretty. I haven’t had to use it much but I still have it. I kept it for emergencies only.”  
“Well, I’m glad you like it.” There was a small smile on his face.  
Joel had found an intact door. Opening it, we found it led to a stairwell. Oh lucky me another one of these. We climbed up it only to be welcomed by banging sounds. The groans accompanying it confirmed that it was a runner.  
Joel ran straight for it and beat it to death with a wooden board. He had found it after the ceiling crash.  
The infected had been banging on a closed door. Behind it, came a few muffled shouts. It was Tess.  
Joel was slamming the door open and rushing towards Tess. When I entered, I watched as Tess did the same exact thing Joel did a few seconds ago. The runner when down as Tess completely obliterated the wood chunk in her hands.   
“Tess?”  
“I’m fine.” Tess breathed out.  
I was right behind Joel when I could hear little grunts coming from the other room. Ellie.  
“Guy’s get in here!”  
“Oh my gosh, Ellie!” I shoved past Joel and Tess in desperation.  
Ellie was pressed against a display while trying to fight off a runner. I whipped out my dagger and buried it into the infected’s head. It fell to the ground.  
I didn’t have anytime to check on Ellie as more infected entered the room. Joel and Tess had finally decided to join us. We made quick work of the monstrosities.  
“That was too damn close.”  
When the coast was clear, I was pulling Ellie into my arms and checking for any new bites or cuts. When I squished her face, Ellie groaned. At some point, she had to push me away.  
“Ugh, mom! I’m okay.”  
“You better be.”  
“Tess, how you holding up?” Joel asked, coming up beside me.  
“Just a bit winded.” Tess took a deep breath. “This way. This’ll get us to the roof.” Finished speaking, Tess vaulted herself out the window and up the stairs.  
Joel stopped in front of Ellie. “How ‘bout you kid? You okay?”  
“Define okay.”  
“Are you still breathin’?”  
“Do small, panicked breaths count?”  
“Yeah, they count.”  
“Alright, then I’m okay.”   
After that, Ellie was following Tess. I was about to join her when I felt a hand on my shoulder. I looked back to see Joel eyeing me.  
“You alright? No bites, deep cuts, or anything? I didn’t think to ask ya after the roof came down on us.”  
My eyes softened and a smile found its way to my face. “I’m okay, Joel. Thanks for asking.”  
“You held yourself pretty well out there.”  
“Well, Tess did teach me a few things.” The two of us shared another smile before joining the other two on the roof.  
When I reached the top of the stairs, I could see the sun had begun to rise. I couldn’t believe this whole thing had taken all night. The view from up here took my breath away. The dark blues of the sky slowly faded into purples, pinks, oranges, and yellows. I hadn’t seen a sunrise in a long while. I wasan’t ever able to see this sight. Typically, I was inside my classroom at this time.  
“We gotta find a way across.” Tess looked to Joel.  
The gap between roofs, was far too wide for any of us to jump it. Gazing back, I watched as Joel quickly found aboard long enough to bridge the gap. Once he set down the board, Joel motioned to Ellie. He was explaining that it would be a little wobbly when Ellie just scoffed at him and crossed the makeshift bridge.  
Joel flashed me an ‘are you serious’ look. I offered him a shrug.  
“She’s fourteen Joel. That kind of attitude is expected.”  
“I heard that.”  
I scoffed at Ellie’s response. “Well, it’s true, honey.”  
As I sassed Ellie, Joel had pulled himself up and crossed over to the other roof. He came to stand right next to Ellie. They were looking at the Capitol building.   
From where I stood, I could faintly hear the two talking. The sight had me pausing. As I admired the two, I crossed my arms and leaned on my right foot.  
I never really dated anyone when it was just Ellie and me. Yeah, there were maybe one or two dates that I went on but they never went anywhere. Nothing too serious to warrant Ellie meeting them. I always felt bad that Ellie was missing a male role in her life. This was just a glimpse at what could have been. It was bittersweet for me.  
“That’s a sight isn’t it?”  
I laughed a sad laugh. “Yeah, she needs this.”  
“There wasn’t ever anyone?”  
“Not anyone serious.”  
“Well, maybe somehow you’ll get that chance. As I said, Joel can be sweet when he wants to be.”  
“Tess..”  
“I know, I know. Just… Who knows.”  
Tess was the next person across the bridge. I watched as she crossed. She was acting strangely. I couldn’t quite put my finger on what was going on but it left a sour taste in my mouth.  
“C’mon, this way.” Tess voiced once I was on the next roof.  
Passing Joel, I saw that she was stuck in some sort of trance. His eyes were locked on his watch. I was about to grab his attention when Tess snapped at him.  
“Hey! Pick it up.”  
As I climbed down the ladder, I got a little glimpse at Joel. He jumped a little at Tess’ exclamation. I didn’t see what happened next because I moved my attention to climbing the ladder. I did hear the two mumble to each other.

X_x

It took about an hour to cross through the rest of the city. We didn’t run into many infected and the place was actually pretty calm. Ellie and I were the only ones who talked the entire time. We talked about whatever we could think of. Joel and Tess stuck to the front While Ellie and I walked closely behind. I’m pretty sure the two would occasionally chuckle when Ellie and I would get into some sort of banter.  
“It’s right around this corner. C’mon.” Tess motioned for us to move.  
“Let’s keep movin’, kid.”  
“I know you two are ready to get us off your hands but calm down will ya? We’re moving.”  
Joel sighed, “‘m sorry. Just ready for this to be done and over with.”  
“I get that. We are too.” Without even thinking, I bumped my shoulder into Joel’s. We both shared a shocked look. Ignoring it, we caught up to Tess and Ellie.   
We found another dead Firefly. Ellie expressed her worry while Tess tried reassuring her. Then she said something strange.  
I was close enough to hear her say “It has to be.” Under her breath. I was shocked, to say the least. What had happened within the last three to four hours that had her so gung-ho about this job? Not lingering on it, I move on towards the Capitol.  
Soon enough we were approaching the building. Right in front of the Capitol was a massive flooded area. I cursed under my breath. Ellie looked at me unsure.  
“Um, just so it’s out there, I can’t swim.”  
“It looks like it’s shallow on the right side. Follow me.”  
I made sure that I was right behind Ellie. I wanted to be sure she’d be okay. Why? I couldn’t tell you. I tend to blame that stuff on my anxiety.  
“I’m glad Marlene found you guys.” Ellie spoke up.  
“What do you mean?”  
“I know you guys are getting paid to do this, but I’m trying to say thanks.”  
“Sure thing.” Joel said in a monotonous voice.  
“I’m glad I found out you weren’t dead.” Tess bumped my shoulder.  
I flashing a smile towards Tess. “Same here.”  
Wading through the water, we finally made it to the stairs that led to the Capitol. Joel practically ran to the doors. Someone was ready to get us out of their hair.  
I was in the back of the group. Everyone else was rushing to get it. When the door finally opened, Joel let out a disappointed sigh. Tess went ballistic.  
“No... No, no, no!”  
Bodies littered the ground. They all were lying in a pool of their own blood. I stood there shocked. What were we going to do now? I had no clue where to go and I didn’t expect Tess or Joel to help us. My eyes stung with tears.  
Elie eyed me warily. I tried to pull it together. I can’t fall apart on her. I have to be strong for her. I inconspicuously wiped away a few tears and took a deep breath.  
Tess was scrambling around. She was next to one of the dead Firefly soldiers while looking for something in their clothes. Across the room, Joel eyed her.  
“What happens now?” Ellie looked to Joel then to me.  
A frown planted itself on Joel’s face. He walked towards Tess. “What are you doin’, Tess?”  
“Maybe they ah,” She shuffled through the Firefly’s things, “Maybe they had a map or something to tell us where they were going.” Tess fumbled around some more. She stopped to look at Joel and me but instantly, she was back to searching the Firefly.  
“How far are we going to take this?” Joel lamented.  
Tess whipped her head to Joel, “As far as it needs to go!” Her shout echoed through the hall. She turned to me, “Where was this lab of theirs?”  
“She never told me. She briefly mentioned that it was somewhere out west.”  
“What are we doing here?” Joel spoke with his hands, “This is not us.”  
“What do you know about us?” Tess shot up from the floor. She was shaking her head, “About me?”  
“I know that you are smarter than this.” Joel said with clenched teeth while pointing to the dead Firefly.  
“Really? Guess what? We’re shitty people, Joel. Its been that way for a long time.”  
“No, we are survivors!” Joel shouted.  
I stood by Elie and could only see glimpses of the smuggler’s faces. I knew Joel was sporting a pissed off look while Tess had some kind of a hybrid sad, desperate look.  
“This is our chance-”  
Joel interrupted her and shouted, “It is over, Tess!” Joel paused for a second, “Now we tried. Let’s just go home.”  
Looking at Tess, I could see something in her eyes. She had given up. I couldn’t figure out why. Yeah, it had all gone to shit but it was nothing to warrant this behavior out of her.  
In the two years I was close with her, I knew she was not someone who would gave up easily. She fought her way out of troubling situations. She did anything and everything to get what she wanted. If it didn’t play out, she picked herself back up and went on with her life.  
“I’m not… I’m not going anywhere. This is my last stop.”  
“What?”  
“Our luck had to run out sooner or later.”  
“What are you going on-”  
A gasp escaped me. It was as if I got a sucker punched in the gut. It hurt so much I had to crouch down into a squat. Tears stung in my eyes. Wrenching pain made itself prevalent in my stomach.   
Joel had looked back at me. He still wore a glare but his eyebrows had drawn together. He looked back at Tess and reached out for her.  
“No, don’t! Don’t touch me.” Tess whispered the last bit. Her eyes on my crumpled form.  
“Oh, Tess.” I picked myself up while wiping away my tears. The pain still prevalent in my gut. Joel had turned around to watch me.

“Holy shit.” At some point, Ellie must have caught on. She looked from me to Tess. It clicked in her mind. “She’s infected.” Switching to Ellie, Joel’s eye narrowed at Ellie.  
He turned back to Tess. Her head was tilted as she looked away from the group. She looked at him when she sensed his gaze on her. When Joel saw the look in her eyes, he took a few steps back. He scoffed at her.  
“Joel…”  
“Let me see it.” He motioned to her with his hand.  
Tess was shaking her head again, “I didn’t mean for this-”  
“Show. It. To. Me.”  
Tess reached up to the collar of her shirt and jerked it to the side. A bite mark rested just above her collarbone. It was red, veiny, and angry. You could see the infection had begun to spread from it.  
“Oh, Christ!” Joel breathed the words out. He scoffed again.  
“Oops, right?” Letting go of her shirt, Tess Walked towards Ellie, “Give me your arm.” she forced Ellie’s sleeve up. Looking at Joel, She pointed towards her bite mark.   
“This was three weeks. I was bitten an hour ago and it’s already worse.” To emphasize her point, Tess moved closer to Joel. “This is fucking real, Joel!” Tess let go of Ellie’s arm only to get in Joel’s face.  
Almost immediately after she was free, Ellie was pulling her sleeve down. She came to stand at my left.  
“You’ve got to get these two to Tommy’s. He used to run with this crew, he’ll know where to go.”  
“No, no, no, no. That was your crusade.” Joel jabbed his finger toward Tess. “I am not doin’ that.” He then pointed toward Ellie.  
“Yes, you are! Look,” Getting closer to Joel, Tess motioned to herself, “There has to be enough here that you must be some sort of obligation to me. So you get them to Tommy’s.” Tess’ eyes never left Joel’s as she pointed to Ellie.  
There was a motor grumble that came from outside. We all faced the door. FEDRA had caught up to us. If we didn’t move soon, we’d all be looking like the Fireflies here.  
“Shit.”  
“Oh, Chr-” Tess ran to the window.  
I peered over to watch as a truck pulled up front. A handful of soldiers spilled out from the bed of the truck. Each one was carrying some sort of heavy gun.  
“They’re here.” Tess had pulled out her pistol.  
“Dammit.” Joel let out.  
Looking to both JOel and me, Tess said, “I can buy you some time but you have to run.”  
“What?” Ellie gasped, “You want us to just leave you here?”   
“Yes.”  
“Tess.” I pleaded with my eyes.  
As I spoke, Joel spoke up as well, “There is no way-”  
“I will not turn into one of those things.” A silence came over us, “C’mon. Make this easy for me”  
Stepping forward, She switched gazes with Joel and me. I couldn’t do much but stand there in awe. I respected her choice even if I didn’t agree with it. I had just found her only to lose her. We had so much to catch up on and so much to do. I was going to try and find a way to stay in touch and find a way to spend some time together. Now there was no way.  
Joel got this distant look. He stepped a few paces back. “I can fight-”  
“N-no, just go!” Tess practically shoved him back. “Just fucking go.” She kept her eyes on Joel.  
“Ellie…” I voiced.  
“I’m sorry. I didn’t-I didn’t mean for this.”  
“Get a move on.” Joel’s voice had become thick and grumbly. He slowly backed away.  
I waited for Ellie to move before I stepped closer to Tess. She looked at me. I had tears streaming down my face and a trembling frown on my lips. Tess extended her arm out to me. I walked up and grabbed her hand. We both squeezed it. Looking into her eyes, I could see the sadness I felt in them.  
“Take care of them.” Tess whispered so quietly I almost didn’t catch it.  
With one final squeeze, I let go of her hand. As I dropped her hand, I gave her a few nods. I stood there for a few seconds. When she turned back to Joel. I fell into step with him. The two nodded at each other before we turned around and ran off to the next room.


	5. Chapter 4: Lincoln

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After Tess’ death, the three of you have a new mission. Joel knows someone who can help you all get to Tommy’s quicker.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ooookay! So, I’m exhausted. I’ve had the busiest week. So, give me a break if this chapter is total shit. I already can tell you that I hate it. I know I can write better but I wanted to get something out for y’all! Anyway, hopefully you can see some good in this. Enjoy!

Joel shut the door behind me. I let out a few shaky breaths as I tried to process what just happened. There were still tears stinging in my eyes. Thankfully, they didn’t blur my eyesight.   
“What the fuck? I can’t believe we did that!” Ellie’s voice echoed through the hall we walked into.  
“Stop.” A deep grumble came from Joel.  
Ellie scoffed, “We just left her to die.”  
“Ellie. I need you to take a deep breath and focus.” Joel and I made eye contact. A small nod was sent his way. I knew that we needed to get away as quickly and as far as possible. Once we were far enough, we all could let what just happened, sink in.   
“You two stay close to me. We have to move.” With that Joel led the way up. a grand staircase led to the upper floor.  
This entire room was almost made entirely out of marble. That meant that most of the noise bounced off the walls a lot easier. I could hear a great deal of what was happening in the room behind us. The gunshots sounded as if the soldiers were in the room with me.  
Joel had taken off into a run. Ellie was right on his heels. I decided that it would be a good idea to sprint after them. When I had caught up to the two, we came upon a balcony that overlooked the entryway. I heard Tess cry out. When I peered into the entryway, I saw Tess’ corpse lying in a puddle of her blood.  
“Oh my gosh, Tess...” I had to stop myself from crying. Instead, I followed Joel as he snuck around the balcony.  
“Target neutralized. She took out two of my men.” The FEDRA soldier paused, “Copy that. You, take out the door. You, with me.” The FEDRA soldier’s voice rang out.  
Loud banging was coming from the door we had come from. The FEDRA soldiers weren’t even concerned with the amount of noise they were causing. As the three of us made it to the next room, I could hear the door, below us, smash open. It was alright though. We were gonna make it out before they found us.  
The room we were in was an old conference room. On the far wall was a massive hole. It was as if a bomb had been set off and blew out the entire section. Hanging out of the hole was a wooden board that stuck out which Joel used to vault himself over into the next room. The next room had just as much damage as the room we were currently in.  
There weren’t any signs of soldiers. A dead guy leaned against a wall with an old hunting rifle. Joel grabbed it along with whatever ammo was left on the guy. He looked back at me then to the rifle.  
“You any good with one of these.?”  
“Please, I had Firefly training. Yeah, I’m a good shot.”  
Handing me the rifle, he pushed forward. When we entered the room, FEDRA soldier’s made an appearance. We snuck around and took out the soldiers quickly and quietly.  
“What are we doing? How are we getting out of here?” Ellie looked at both of us.  
“Alright, we’re gonna go through that hall. Ellie, stay down. I don’t know how many more of them there are. Y/N, with me.”  
There were quite a few more. Eight to be exact. They were smart too. They have most of them out scouting but left two of them to guard the exit.  
Joel and I looked at each other. He pointed at me and then nodded to one side of the room. Then did the same thing to himself except to the opposite end of the room. I gave him a curt nod.   
Looking at Ellie, I motioned her to stick to Joel. She flashed me a look as she hesitated. I gave her the “mom” look. With a sigh, she crouched down and chased after Joel.  
It almost was impossible how the soldiers wandered into their demise. I would go as far as to say robotic. I placed myself in the ideal spots and watched as each one walked passed me. As quietly as possible, I suck out of my spot and behind them. That’s when I exercised what Tess taught me all those years ago. Each one of them went down without alerting the others.  
It wasn’t until the last two were left that I realized that Joel and Ellie had regrouped with me. Ellie looked okay. Joel on the other hand was sporting a new bruise on his temple. He must’ve run into some trouble.  
“I take the one on the right, you take the one on the left?” I looked at Joel. He nodded and we both crept up to the soldiers. We took them out with no problem.  
We walked through the exit. The three of us hurriedly ran down the stairs onto the flooded street. Looking for an escape, Ellie pointed something out.  
“There are stairs over there.”  
“I see ‘em. Stay low.” Joel took the lead with Ellie in the middle.  
The building we were heading towards was a subway entrance. Eroded and falling apart, the tile and brick on it seemed to hold up pretty well. I hoped that it would stay that way as we traveled through it.  
Right as we entered the subway stairwell, I could hear another truck approaching us. It pulled right up to the entrance.  
“They’re going into the Subway! Stop ‘em!”  
Part of the stairway had broken off of the landing. We had to jump down it. When we had stood up, the truck’s gun started to fire at us. We raced around to get behind a wall. Thankfully, none of the soldiers had time to catch up to us.  
Jogging through the halls, We quickly realized the place was a breeding ground for the cordyceps. Spores spilled out of the room that we needed to get through. I was pulling on my mask as soon as I saw the particles floating in the air. Joel followed suit.  
When we were just about to walk through into the next room, Ellie was pulling us down into a crouch. She led us to hide behind a few benches.  
“Get down.” Whispered Ellie.  
She took a few breaths as we hid. I watched as Joel eyed Ellie. She wasn’t wearing a mask. It was hard to not laugh at his expression.  
“How the hell are you breathin’ in this stuff?”  
“We weren’t lying to you.” I voiced while looking directly into his eyes. Joel let out a puff of air.  
Just as I had finished speaking, a FEDRA soldier walked through the entrance. His flashlight went over us as he ran to the other soldier who was across the room.  
“Did you spot ‘em?”  
“No, place is empty.”  
“I’ll search out here. You, go check over there.”  
There was this unspoken rule that had formed between Joel and me. We would split up and take out the enemy as quickly as possible. I went around to catch the soldier by the subway carts while Joel took out the other guy. Just as quickly as the last time, we put down the soldier and we moved on.  
moving down the subway, we followed where the carts led. Eventually, the three of us came upon a section that was entirely flooded with water. It was most definitely impossible for Ellie to cross.  
“Hey, I can’t swim.”  
“I know, honey. Just… Joel and I will figure something out.”  
Joel had entered the water and was already looking for a solution. I had been a little hesitant. This water didn’t look any better than what was in the sewers we had to wade through a couple of hours ago. Ugh, this was going to be anything but pleasant.   
I walked into the water just as Joel did. He was swimming a few feet ahead of me. Swimming away from the train car, I examined the area. Finding a ledge, I pulled myself up and onto it. Sitting at the edge of the ledge were two flashlights. Two people were lying on their sides dead. I figured that they didn’t need the flashlights anymore and I took them.  
Turning one on, I could see slightly better. The spores in the air were thick which made things ten times more difficult to see through. I noticed right away that there was a way to get to the ledge from the train cars.  
“Ellie, it looks like there’s a way you can make it over here. Jut stay in the train cars.”  
“Yeah, I can sort of see it.”  
I tried to keep my flashlight on her as she maneuvered around the cars. I knew it didn’t really help either of us but it did calm my nerves.   
When she had crossed and made it over to me, I made sure to hand her the other flashlight. She thanked me and attached it to her backpack. With her new flashlight, she illuminated her surroundings. She focused on a hallway that looked like it led to nowhere. I smiled at her curiosity,   
Beside me, there was a loud thunk. Turning towards the noise, I saw that Joel was at our feet with a wooden pallet.  
“Get on,” Joel said after a few seconds passed.  
Ellie sent him a questioning glance, “Really?”  
“Ellie.” Joel sighed.  
“Okay, okay.” With that, Ellie clambered on the pallet.  
When Joel saw that she was situated, He swam her to the other side of the subway. The two muttered to each other. Ellie warned Joel not to let her fall in but he reassured her that she’d be fine. It was a cute exchange.  
I had no idea where they were going until I realized they were moving towards the ledge across the pond. It hopefully led to an exit. I wondered how were Joel and I supposed to get up. I scanned the other side with my flashlight. Ah, there was a ladder.  
I slid back into the murky water and swam over to where Joel was. Ellie had successfully pulled herself up on the edge. She jogged over to the ladder and let it fall in. The ladder made a sploosh noise as it hit the water.  
Once the ladder was down, Joel couldn’t move any quicker. He was hopping up. I followed right behind him. It was incomprehensible how much I wanted out of this gross water and out of this damn subway. I missed the fresh air.  
“Alright, let’s get outta here.” Joel, yet again, took the lead.  
A few twists and turns and we came upon a new set of stairs. They led to an opening that had the sun shining through. I almost cried with joy. I wanted to rip this stupid thing off my face. It felt like the mask was suction cupping to my face.  
As soon as the sunlight hit my face, I was yanking the gas mask off. I took a deep breath through my nose. Oh, the wonderful smell of nature! I practically threw my mask into my bag.  
Joel, in front of me, groaned as he sat himself on an old tire that had been left on the side of the road. He took his mask and clipped it to the side of his backpack. That was an ingenious idea. I’d have to look for some supplies and do the same. Especially if we’re ever running for our lives and we ran into some spores.  
Ellie stood next to me. She had her hand on her hips while she watched Joel. Her eyebrows were drawn and she had a small frown on her face. It seemed like she was trying to find the right words to say to him.  
Joel coughed a little as he sat there. He held his fist up to his mouth as he did so. He took a few deep breaths as the rest of us had.  
“Hey, look. Um…" Ellie had moved her gaze to the ground, “about Tess…” she trailed off while looking back up at Joel.  
I closed my eyes. Oh, this darling girl. She was going to get an earful from this man. If it was one thing I knew, I knew he clearly has no idea how to emotionally process stuff. I only hoped that he didn’t grill into Ellie too much. I would have to step in and that would make things messy real quick.  
“I don’t even know what to-”  
Joel interrupted Ellie mid-sentence, “Here’s how this thing’s gonna’ play out. You don’t bring up Tess. Ever. Matter of fact, we can just keep our histories to ourselves.” Joel eyed me as he leaned back and rested his hands on his knees. “Secondly, don’t tell anyone about your… condition. They’ll think you’re crazy or they’ll try ta kill you. And lastly, you do what I say, when I say it.”   
I scoffed, “Really?”  
“Y/N.”  
“NO, Joel. I am a grown-ass woman. I don’t need a man to tell me what to do. Here’s what I’m going to say. You and I are going to work together. We are now a team,” I watch as Joel scoffs and shakes his head, “Whether you like it or not, you are stuck with the two of us. It will go a lot smoother if we work together. I know you have a stick up your ass right now. I get that this whole ordeal is shitty and it fucking hurts but I’m also hurting too. That woman saved my life years ago. She was important to me as well. I am trying my damndest to keep it together so that this girl,” I pointed to Ellie, “Can get to the Fireflies and so that we can go back to living our lives. I need you to cooperate with me so that this isn’t one giant shit show. Can you do that for me?”  
Joel looked directly into my eyes. It lasted a few seconds before he looked away. He gave me a nod. Accompanying the head nod was a scoff.  
“Don’t expect this to be all rainbow and butterflies. I ain’t the type ta be warmin’ up to people.”  
“I don’t expect you to. We all got shit we’re dealing with.”  
“Good.” Letting out a grunt, Joel pulled himself to stand, “Now, there’s a town a few miles north from here.” He pointed in the area, “There’s a fella that owes me some favors… Good chance he could get us a car.” Joel breathed out that last sentence.  
“Alright.”  
“Okay.” Ellie and I said at the same time.  
“Let’s get a move on.”

x_x

We had been walking for an hour after what just happened. I had time to process things. I didn’t let my emotions completely overwhelm me but I did shed a few tears. I will admit that it was a little easier to come to terms with it this time around. I thought she died in the hotel years ago. I already had time to process it. I felt guilty. Was it bad that it was easier? I can’ imagine what Joel was feeling.  
“Y/N?”  
I furrowed my brows. What did Joel want now?  
“Yeah?” I asked.  
“Could I.. Uh. Can we talk?”  
“Yeah.” I jogged up to walk by his side. Before giving Joel my attention, I made sure that Ellie was okay and that I could easily check on her. When everything was okay, I gave Joel my undivided attention. “What do ya need?”  
Joel sighed. He briefly looked at the ground before looking at me, “I’m sorry. I was angry. Still am.”  
“I’m sorry too. We both projected our feelings on each other. So, this guy, is he safe?”  
“Um, T-Tess would do most of the jobs with him. I did maybe a dozen jobs with ‘im. But Tess trusted him.”  
“Okay,”  
After that exchange, I fell into step with Ellie. We were shoulder to shoulder. Not noticing, I elbowed her lightly. She snapped out of her thoughts and gazed up at me.  
“Hey, kiddo. How ya doin’?”  
“I don’t know. I’m still processing Tess. And the fact that I’m outside. It’s gorgeous out here. How have I missed this my entire life?”  
“Ellie, you have to remember that it isn’t this nice all the time. It can get just as bad out here. The quarantine zone did a good job of protecting us from that. That being said, I will talk with Marlene to see what we can do about the outside. I can maybe see if we can’t go on a few camping trips.”  
“I’d like that. It’d be a nice change.” Ellie paused. I watched as the gears in her head moved. “What’s going to happen when we get there? Will I even be able to go outside? Are we ever going to go back? Mom, I don’t want to lose our home.”  
“Baby girl, I don’t know what’s gonna happen. I will tell you I’ll fight like hell to get us back to a normal. I’ll fight to where it just you and me again.”  
“I’m scared of ending up alone.”  
“Oh, Ellie.” I wrapped an arm around her shoulder and leaned my head against hers. “I won’t let that happen. Ever. Okay?” I pressed a kiss to her hair.  
“Yeah,” Wrapping her arms around me, Ellie held me in a death grip.  
When we parted, I could see that Joel had glanced back at us. A deep frown was plastered on his face and it looked like his eyes were all misty. That part could have been a trick of the light, though.

x_x

Two hours later, we came upon a water tower. It had Lincoln written in big letters on the side. Below the tower was a bunch of lush greenery. Some trees and bushes. Boulders littered the ground as well. There was a little opening in the greenery that revealed the town which I assumed was Lincoln.  
“Now, there we go…” Joel pointed to the water tower.  
We came to stop in front of the traffic barrier. Joel leaned on it as he examined the small drop below.  
“Yeah, it’ll be faster to through here.” Finished speaking, Joel vaulted over the barrier.  
Following Joel, Ellie and I landed on the ground with a grunt. I need to remember to bend my knees. The impact jarred my knees a little. Thankfully, I could still walk.  
Ellie walked forward first, “Man…” she voiced.  
“What?” Joel and I both said.  
Ellie’s eyes examined the forest we ventured through. “Nothing. It’s just… I’ve never seen anything like this. That’s all.”  
“You mean the woods?” Jole looked back at her with a questioning look.  
“Yeah, never walked through the woods. It’s kinda cool.” As Ellie spoke, you could hear the smile in her voice.  
In front of me, Joel chuckled at Ellie’s amazement. He glanced at me with a raised brow. I smiled and shrugged.  
“Don’t give me that look. I haven’t been outside for so long. So of course this one hasn’t been out here. So, of course, she hasn’t been out. Too dangerous.” As I stared at him, Joel raised his hands up in surrender.   
We crossed maybe two feet before Ellie was speaking up again. This girl was a chatterbox today. I don’t blame her. It was her way of dealing with her trauma.  
“Why don’t you just take us back to Marlene?”  
Joel chuckled and shook his head, “If she were up to the task, why’d she drop you off on us?”  
“Well, maybe she’s better now.” Ellie was grasping at straws.  
“Kid, I don’t mean to upset you but your friend’s chances of survival weren’t too high ta begin with.”  
“She’s a lot tougher than you think.”  
At that comment, I snorted. This didn’t go unnoticed by both parties. Ellie shrugged it off while Joel looked at me, puzzled. As we kept walking, Joel fell into step with me.  
“What’s the deal with you and Marlene.?”  
I chuckled. “What happened to ‘keeping our histories to ourselves’?”  
“Sue me for bein’ a little snoopy.”  
That triggered a belly laugh out of me, “You’re good. We, uh… We’ve had our fair share of disagreements. Fourteen years ago, we made a promise to a dear friend of ours. She didn’t really hold up her end of the bargain. Or not the way I expected her to.”  
“This have anything to do with her?” Joel nodded his head in Ellie’s direction.  
“Oh, it has everything to do with her.”  
“Well, okay then. And to answer your question,” Joel glanced back at Ellie, “I don’t think I could get us back into the city in one piece. Trust me. I wish there was some other option.”  
We didn’t say anything after that. Coming up to a stream, I found a few hidden supplies. It was materials to make a shiv. Since I had my knife, I handed them off to Joel. He happily took them and shoved them into his bag.  
Suddenly, a bunny shot out of a bush. It took off deeper into the wooded area. The bunny had caught Ellie’s attention.  
“Whoa! Hey, buddy. Mom, did you see that?”  
“Yeah, I did. We probably spooked it.”  
“I’m not used to the amount of wildlife out here.”  
“You will soon enough. Might even run into you. So, keep an eye out.” Joel chuckled a bit. That must have brought up a memory.  
Not soon after the bunny sighting, we ran into a fence. It was old and rusted. Barbed wire ran along the top of the fence and vines grew all over it. Joel ran up to the gate and tried opening it. It jiggled but didn’t open.  
“Well, shit.” Joel sighed as he scanned the area for another way in.  
Ellie looked at Joel and me, “Should we climb it?”  
“No, there’s barbed wire on top of it.” I pointed to the wire.  
“We have to find another way in.” Joe scratched his head as he spoke. His eyes surveyed our surroundings.  
“Maybe over there? There’s a building that looks climbable.” I pointed to a building that was around the fence. Joel nodded and took the first step.   
A tree trunk blocked out path. Joel and I stepped over it. As soon as we were on the other side, Ellie gasped. We turned around to look at her.  
“Whoa, look. Fireflies!” Ellie giggled as they flew around her. “I mean… real fireflies.”  
“Yeah, I see that.” Joel was unimpressed.  
“Pretty cool, huh?” I flashed Ellie a grin.  
“Yeah.”  
Scoffing and rolling his eyes, Joel moved to where the building stood. He pulled himself up on to realize there still was a gap between the building and the fence. However, there was a building connected to the fence. If we could somehow find a way to cross over it, we’d be in. I watched as Joel’s eyes landed on something. He looked down at Ellie and me.  
“Would one of you come over here and grab me this board. I think we can use it to cross over.”  
I was about to walk over to it when Elle stopped me. “You go up. I’ll get it.”  
“If you say so.” I pulled myself up the building.  
When I had made it up, I watched as Joel picked something up. It was a metal pipe. On it was a pair of scissors that had been broken apart and taped to the sides of the pipe.  
“Would ya look at that.”  
“That’s an interesting contraption.”  
“It’s probably something Bill made.”  
“Bill?” Ellie questioned from below.  
“The, uh, friend that lives here.”  
“Oh.” Ellie and I said at the same time.  
By now Ellie and grabbed the board and handed it to Joel. He pulled it up and placed it down which bridged the gap.  
“There we go.” Joel motioned for me to go first.  
I scoffed as I crossed it. He was ever such the gentleman, not. I chuckled to myself. Yes, he had his moments but he was still a grumpy ass, old man.  
I could see most of the town from where I stood. Initially, I had thought that this place was small. I will retract that statement. This place might have been small compared to Boston but for three people this place was huge!   
Once everyone was across, Joel looked out. Off in the distance was a tower of smoke. “That you, Bill?” Joel said while still looking at the pillar of smoke.  
“Where do you usually meet him?” I questioned Joel.   
“Huh? Uh, different places.”  
“You’ve never been here, have you?” Ellie squinted her eyes at Joel. A small smirk on her face.  
“I know this is where he lives, but… No, I ain’t never been here, personally.”  
“So, you think that smoke might be him?” I asked.  
“Sure as hell better be.”  
With a sigh, I said, “Okay, let’s go check it out then.”  
“Alright, c’mon.” Joel walked towards a group of buildings. I walked side by side with him.

x_x

We walked into a building. It looked like it was some sort of office building. There were rooms with desks and old, rusted filing cabinets. I found several bullets and even a small handgun.  
“Ooh, can I have the gun?” Ellie asked.  
“No.” Joel and I immediately voiced.  
“Wha-Why not?”  
“I don’t need a little girl to end up shootin’ me.”  
“‘That little girl’ has been trained with a gun. I’m not going to accidentally shoot you! Mom?”  
“As much as I trust you, I don’t want you handling one. I just want you to be safe.”  
“But I can help!”  
“Ellie, Joel, and I can protect you. You don’t need to worry about that.” Ellie was about to speak up when I spoke over her, “That’s final, Ellie.”  
Ellie scoffed and kicked an old trash can. We moved on from that building to the next. This one was slightly different but I still was filled with desks and filing cabinets. I never truly realized how many buildings were just offices.   
When Ellie walked into the room, she had started to blow some air. Joel looked back at Ellie and me. He had a questioning look. I also had that same look. Ellie peered at us.  
“Are you alright?” Joel directed his attention to Ellie.  
“I’m trying to learn how to whistle.”  
“You don’t know how to whistle?”  
“Well, does it sound like I know how to whistle?” Ellie kept blowing as Joel shook his head.  
I flashed both of them a smile. Joel glared at me while Ellie gave me a smile back. Moments like these made me realize that maybe things wouldn’t be as shitty as I thought they would.  
Walking out of the buildings, we came upon a locked door. Joel whipped out a shiv and magically unlocked the door.   
“Alright.” Joel mumbled.  
“Nice.” Ellie was just as impressed as me.  
Inside were all sorts of supplies. I ran into a couple of expired granola bars. I opened one to see that there was no mold growing on them. I figured that It was good enough to eat. I guess we really wouldn’t find out until we actually eat them.  
Outside the door, was another fence. Guess what, it was unopenable as well. This time, it was jammed. Someone on the other side had shoved a pipe through the handles. Thus, preventing us from getting through. This Bill guy was pretty smart.  
“Ah, shit. It’s jammed from the other side.” Joel turned to us.  
Ellie pointed to the top of the fence, “Here, boost me up.”  
Shaking his head, Joel spoke up, “No, no, no. That’s not such a good idea.”  
“My thoughts exactly.” I jumped in.  
“Well, how else are we gonna get over there? Mom, do you think you can boost Joel?”  
“Ha, cute. Joel can boost me and-”  
“I still don’t like that idea.”  
“It’s better me than her.” I argued pointing to Ellie.  
Joel blew air through his nose. “Fine, c’mere. Gimme your foot. Now listen, you just open it, okay? Nothing else.”  
“Joel, I’ve got this. I’ll be fine.” With that, Joel lifted me. I grabbed onto the fence and safely made it to the other side.  
Quickly, I pulled the pipe from the gate. Opening the gate, I did a little gesture. As if I was a butler welcoming party guests to the house. Ellie was the first to walk through.  
“Why thank you.” She said in a snooty voice.  
“Good job,” Joel said with a nod.  
Giggling, I followed to where Ellie was. She stood next to a truck that had a safe sitting right next to it. She was trying to open it but she had no luck. Maybe the code for it was somewhere around here.  
“So, let’s say we get a car from this buddy of yours. Then what?” Finally giving up on the safe, Ellie caught up to Joel.  
“Well, then we go find Tommy.”  
“Marlene said he was your brother.”  
“And more importantly he was a Firefly. He’d know where to take you two.”  
“Wait. Do you know him, mom?”  
“Tommy? Yeah. He climbed the ranks like no other Firefly. He and I would have guard duty a lot of the time. We swapped stories all the time. I really liked the ones about his pig-headed brother. I guess I know who that is now.” I smirked at Joel. He only scoffed in response.  
“Anyway, He lives far from here which is why we need the car.”  
Moving on, the three of us approached what looked like to be a public garden. There were gnomes and a fairy sculpture in the middle. I smiled. I knew Ellie will like this.   
When she was three, she wanted me to read this gnome book at least five times a day. For years, she requested the book be read before bed. It was one of her cutest moments.  
“Mom, look.” Ellie giggled “Gnomes!”  
“I knew you were gonna say something about them.”  
“What’s the big deal with gnomes?” Joel gave a quizzical look.  
“Mom read me thins gnome book as a kid. She’d read each character with their own silly voices. I fucking loved it. Ever since then, I have like gnomes. I’ll never forget one birthday, she found me an art book that had nothing but gnomes in it. It was awesome. Anyway, I think they’re super cute.”  
“Yet you don’t like fairies.” I shook my head at Ellie.  
She made a grossed-out face. “No, those things creep me out.”  
“‘Alright, then.” Joel’s expression suggested that he wasn’t paying attention. Yet the fact that he even replied was a big indicator that he was.  
“To this day, I can’t explain that one.” Shrugging and I eyed Ellie.  
The conversation ended and we walked down the road that seemed to lead us in the right direction. Joel tapered off to enter a coffee shop. I had forgotten how much our world relied on coffee.  
In the shop, was the usual. A bar with an old coffee maker, a display for bakery items, and tables and chairs. What stood out though was a large arcade machine. The Turning was written in big letters on the top. The characters covered the rest of the box.  
“Oh... look at that.” Ellie’s eyes were wide and a grin spread across her lips. This grabbed both Joel and I’s attention.  
“What? You play this before?” Joel asked before I could.  
“Nah,” Ellie started pressing all the buttons, “But I had a friend that knew everything about this game. Apparently, there this character called Angel Knives who’d… What was it? She’d punch a hole through your stomach before kicking your head off.” Ellie laughed at that last bit. Joel chuckled with her.  
“Well, I was never a big fan of these things,”   
I smiled. “These had been out of fashion for a while when I was old enough to play them. We had game consoles. So, I played a lot of stuff on those. Though, we had a Pac-Man machine at my dentist. My siblings and I would fight over who got play with it first.” We all shared a smile.  
“Man, I wish I could play it.”  
“Maybe someday.” I patted Ellie’s shoulder. I motioned for her to move seeing how Joel was already out the door.  
Walking down the road further, we came upon a music shop. Inside was rows of records. A drum set was up against the wall to my right. A few electric guitars were still hung on the walls.  
That reminds me. I have always wanted to learn electric guitar. That has always been a pipe dream of mine. It took much time, energy, and money so I never did.  
“Whoa, look at this place.” Ellie had that same look of awe as she did back with the arcade game.  
She walked up to a row and started flipping through the albums. There were a lot of good ones. I had moved to stand next to Ellie as I flipped through another section of albums.  
I flipped to an album that brought me back. It was from the eighties. My mom would play it on long car rides and we would sing along to it. My brother would practically scream it. Bon Jovi’s Slippery When Wet album stared right back at me. Livin’ On A Prayer was my number one favorite.   
“Man, this is kinda sad,” Ellie spoke up when Joel stepped back into the room.  
“What is?”  
“All this music that’s just sitting here. No one’s around to listen to it. I don’t know.” Ellie sighs, “Doesn’t seem right.”  
“Maybe we can take some after we get to Marlene.”  
“I’d love that.”  
“Hopefully, we can find some more cassette tapes for you.”  
With that, we were moving on yet again. Joel had pretty much looted the whole place. I, unfortunately, had filled mu bag up back in Boston. There really wasn’t much I could fit in it. Secretly I was holding a little room for a book. I was hoping we’d find a book store soon.  
Before we could even go any further, Joel and I noticed the massive blockade in the way. Sheets of metal and who knows what was wrapped in barbed wire. It was a masterpiece.   
Joel chuckles, “Yeah, that’s Bills handy work.”  
“Does anyone else live in the town?” I asked Joel.  
“Far as I know, its just him.”  
I watched as Ellie ran up and grabbed a paper that had been stuck to the barbed wire. She read it. Suddenly, she was gasping and running up the road.  
“Now, Ellie…” Joel tried stopping her but she just kept on running.  
Watching as she approached the safe, I knew exactly what she was doing. She looked from the paper to the safe. She messed with the dial and eventually got it open.  
“Would ya look at that,” Joel muttered as he jogged up to the girl.  
When I had caught up with the two, I saw that there was quite a bit of stuff in the safe. A few upgrade parts, ammo, and some beef jerky. I was overjoyed to see that dried meat. I practically snatched it out of Ellie’s hands and shoved it into my bag. She glared at me.  
“I’m going to keep it safe for us. I know you. You’ll eat it all before I can even get a small piece.” I could hear Joel chuckle at my comment. I flashed him a smile. Ellie just rolled her eyes.  
We stashed the other supplies then got a move on. Ellie was looking at a sign that was just sitting in the middle of the road. It was an evacuation notice. It basically explained that there would be an evacuation and told people where they should go. Ellie had her eyebrows drawn.  
“‘Mandatory Evacuation’. Evacuate to where?”  
“Where do you think? Quarantine zone.” Joel sassed.  
“Some places got a head’s up before the infection showed up,” I informed Ellie.  
Joel interjected, “Most didn’t.”  
“Man, must be hard. Just…” Ellie paused to find the right words, “Leaving all your stuff like that.”  
“That ain’t the hard part.” There was something off in Joel voice. My mind went back to his daughter.  
After that conversation, Joel led us down a alleyway. This brought back some memories. Looking at Joel, I could see he was giving me a small smile. He must be remembering too.  
Before we could get too far into the alleyway, a clicker popped out of nowhere. Joel stuck his arm out to protect us. Abruptly, the clicker hit some sort of tripwire and the creature was blown to bits. The three of us gasped.  
I let out a “Holy shit!”  
“Jesus!” Shouted Joel.  
Ellie was just as shocked. “Whoa, Nelly! What-? What the hell was that?”  
“That…” Joel tried to clam his breathing, “Was one of Bill’s traps.”  
I huffed, still shocked. “Your friend a little paranoid, maybe?”  
“Now, that’s puttin’ it lightly.”  
“What’s the deal with this guy?” Ellie inquired.  
“Well, he helped us smuggle stuff into the city. He’s… He knows how to find things.”  
I scoffed, “Well, Let’s hope we don’t blow up trying to find him.”  
“Just watch your step. You two will be fine.”   
Joel had found another locked door. He used another shiv to open the door. I was amazed at his trick. I should try it with my knife. Hopefully, it won’t break. Or maybe I don’t try and keep my knife.  
“You’ve gotta teach me how to do that.” Ellie said beside me. Joel smiled and shook his head.  
A dead body was lying a few feet from the now unlocked door. It had two arrows sticking out of it. I pulled them out and handed them to Joel. I have never shot a bow. So, by default, I handed them to him.  
“Geez,” Ellie’s eyes were wide open as she gazed at the dead body, “Bill good with a bow?”  
“I reckon he is.”  
Lifting a ladder, Joel climbed up onto a truck that was blocking our path. I went up and Ellie followed me. A cushy looking chair sat on the truck. Behind that chair, was a bow. There were a few arrows lying next to it. I guess Bill sits up here to relax and shoot any infected in the area. It’s an interesting way to spend your life.  
“Hey… look at that.” With the bow in hand, Joel drew back the string. The thing seemed to be in great shape.  
“Let me use that. I’m a pretty good shot with that thing.”  
“Ellie...” I pinched the bridge of my nose.  
Joel looked blankly at Ellie, “How ‘bout we just leave this kind of stuff to your mom and I like we agreed?”  
“Well, I said that I can help! We all could be armed and we could cover each other.”  
“I don’t think so.”  
With Joel’s final comment, the conversation ended. Ellie scoffed but didn’t push the issue. I was thankful because I didn’t want a full-on argument in front of Joel. It would only make things more awkward than they already were.  
We crossed a board like we always seem to do. Joel picked it up and dragged it to the wall. He claimed tha we could use this.  
Climbing yet another ladder, we ended up on the roof. And guess what? Yet again, we needed the wooden board. Will there ever come a time where we wouldn’t need a board?  
On the other side, was a clicker. Joel decided to test out his new bow. The clicker went down in two shots. Joel then motioned us to get a move on.  
We came upon another bomb that we maneuvered around. I kept a watchful eye on Ellie as she crossed. It was the only thing that I could to calm my nerves. The only thing that drew my attention away from her was a loud banging noise.  
Down another alleyway was a door. It was the culprit of the banging noises. Joel was already heading towards it. I knew what was behind that door. I just didn’t know how many. There could be a whole horde of them behind that door. With a huff, I followed after the man. If there were more than two, he was going to need my help.  
“Oh, shit. You’re gonna go in there?” Ellie watched as Joel and I walked into the entryway.  
“I wanna see what we can find.” Joel said.  
“You’re gonna find my body when I die from a heart attack.”  
“Don’t worry. Your mom and I got this.”  
Climbing the stairs, we came upon a living room. It was surprisingly clean. Usually, there is a lot of flipped and ripped up furniture. This had everything intact and in the right spots.   
When Joel took another step, an infected came around the corner and darted toward us. Joel, pulling out his revolver, shot the monster.  
Everything went relatively fine after that. We looted the place and moved on. Joel had to set off a couple of bombs but nothing crazier than that. That was until we walked into the next building.  
Before we entered a new door, Joel had looted all the ammo that happened to be piled up. I thought that was quite odd. It wasn’t until Joel opened the door that I knew something was up.  
“Joel!”


	6. Chapter 5: Bill is an asshole

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You find Bill and he’s not what you expected. You all get into quite a bit of trouble.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I got this done. I’m tired. Oh, so tired. I work a shit ton this week and I am quite unhappy about it. I worked until 10 tonight and I have to read 200 pages of a book I don’t even like. Anyway, I bring this lovely chapter. It has everyone’s favorite character, Bill! i’m very happy with how this one turned out. I want y’all to know because of my lovely schedule, I will be uploading this fic on Sunday's/Monday’s instead of Saturday. Okay, I hope you guys enjoy this chapter!

Previously:  
Joel opened the door. “Alright, y’all stay close.” As soon as he stepped into the room, Joel stepped into a snare and hung upside down. “Oh, shit!”  
“Joel!” 

Summer 2033

Running up to him, I stopped him from swinging around. “Here, hold on. I got you.”  
“Goddammit Bill…”  
“What just happened?” Ellie asked beside me.  
“Another one of Bill’s stupid traps!” Joel had a scowl planted on his face. He was also having a hard time breathing.  
I had let Joel go and looked around the place. We were in some garage or warehouse. Chipped brick made up the walls. There were old metal shelves and right in the middle of the room was a fridge. Someone tied a rope to it. Following the rope with my eyes, I found that it was the rope currently wrapped around Joel’s ankle.   
“There!” I pointed at the fridge. “That looks like the counterweight!”  
“Okay,” Ellie ran over to the fridge. I followed her.  
“Cut the rope and it’ll bring me down!”  
“We’re on it, Joel!” I shouted at him.  
Jumping on the table the fridge sat on, Ellie scaled up the side of the fridge. She struggled a bit. I walked closer and helped her get up. As soon as she was up, Ellie pulled out her dagger and started cutting.  
Instantly, the chain fence outside jingled. Groans and shouts accompanied the banging on the face. I jerked my head in the direction. There were only a few infected, but I could hear a significant amount of them shouting in the nearby area.  
“Joel!”  
“I hear ’em! Just help Ellie. I got my gun, I’ll try to keep them away. You still have yours?”  
“It’s tucked away in my jeans.” I struggled to get up on the fridge. I didn’t want to knock off Ellie but it was hard to fucking pull myself up.  
“Be ready to use it! You might need to help with keepin’ them away!” There was a thud outside and quickened footsteps leading to the warehouse. “Shit, here they come!”  
Joel made the first shot. The bullet implanted itself into the infected head, making its body collapse to the ground. I was impressed. The shot was a hard one to make and, with him suspended in the air, that was an amazing shot. Damn, Joel.  
I snapped out of my thoughts and grabbed my knife. I held the rope, taught, and cut from the opposite side as Ellie.  
Each gunshot that Joel took made me cringe slightly. It was loud and it bounced off the warehouse walls. I could feel the pressure rising in my chest as my breathing quickened. Attempting to push it down, I directed my focus on the rope before me.  
“Girls, how’s it lookin’?”  
“We’re going as fast as we can!” Shouted Ellie. She flashed a look at Joel.  
With my focus on the rope, I watched as it cut away each hair. My knife was sharp enough that it cut through like butter. This shouldn’t take too much longer.  
I heard a grunt and a groan from where Joel was hanging. The chains rattled and there was the sound of a struggle. I moved my gaze to Joel. An infected was on top of him. He was gonna get bit if he wasn’t careful.   
The struggle went on for a while but Joel took care of the creature. It wasn’t until he got ganged up by two runners and a clicker that I took action.  
“Ellie, take my dagger. I’m gonna go help, Joel.”  
“Mom-”  
“Now, Ellie!” I kept a watchful eye on the man.   
Joel managed to get an admirable shot on one runner but instantly had to reload. I watched as he fumbled a bit. The infected were getting closer and closer to him.  
When Ellie finally took my knife, I was ripping up my gun out and aiming it at the stupid clicker. I shot its shoulder. Then its head.   
The clicker turned around with a screech. Flinging its limbs, it headed straight towards me. I shot it two more times but the thing still came at me. I took a deep breath and aimed for its head. With one last shot, the clicker went down.  
“Joel, ya good?”  
“Yeah, I’m alright! Thanks!”  
I smiled at him.  
My smile disappeared when a loud crash came from behind me. Ellie had cut the rope enough for the fridge to fall over. The damn thing was still holding on with a few strings.   
Ellie had fallen with the fridge. A “fuck” escaped her.  
I whipped around, “Ellie, are you okay?”  
“Yeah!”  
“Alright, c’mon! You can do it! There’s only a little more to go!” Joel swung slightly from above.  
I shot at a runner as I said, “At least you’re high enough that they can’t reach you anymore!” Joel chuckled a little as he shot at another runner.  
“I’m out! Any of you got some ammo?” Joel’s voice rang out.  
“I do! Here, give him this.” Ellie handed me an ammo box filled with ammo.  
I tossed it to Joel who, thankfully caught it. I got a nod of appreciation before he was firing at the infected again.  
As I helped Joel with vermin control, I scrunched up my face. Why the hell did Ellie have ammo on her? She doesn’t have a gun. I guess it's nice if any of us ran out but still...  
“What the fuck were you doing with ammo in your bag?” I shot a runner in the head.  
“I, uh…” Ellie vigerously sawed at the rope, “I picked some up in the buildings we went through. I figured that you guys could use the extra ammo. Aaaand that I could use it once you come to your senses about me having a gun.”  
A sour chuckle escaped me. “You’re never gonna let that go are you?”  
Before Ellie could reply, she cut the last strands of the rope. Joel came crashing to the ground. I watched as he hit his head as he went down.   
Since the crash distracted me, a runner ran right past me. I tried to shoot at it, but another runner whose teeth snapped at my neck attacked me.  
I made quick work of the runner. I turned to Joel, only to see a rather large man helping him up. He had a machete in hand and a gas mask was covering his face. I raised an eyebrow but Joel couldn’t say anything because the other man was motioning us to leave.  
“Get off your ass and on your feet.” The man took off in a sprint towards an alleyway.  
When we all had made it to though, the man cut another rope. This made the warehouse door slam shut. We all were looking at him on where to go. He took off in the lead.  
“Alright, this way. Keep up.”  
“Oh, shit!” Joel let out as he watched a runner try to get over the front of a truck.  
“Fuck!” Ellie and I shouted at the same time.  
“Ah,” The new guy sighed, “Goddammit! Back! Get back!”   
Joel sprinted in the other direction. I followed him, making sure to pull Ellie with me. He came to a stop when we ran into a truck. There was an open alleyway but Joel clearly had no idea where he was going.  
“Which way?” He asked the man who I suspected was Bill.  
“Alright, we’ll uh… We’ll cut through. C’mon, through here!”  
“C’mon, Y/N!”  
I shook out of the panic I didn’t know I was experiencing and grabbed Ellie. We darted after Joel and Bill. Bill came to a stop in front of a metal door. He struggled with a key chain. There were way too many keys on that thing.  
“Ah, Goddammit! Where’s the goddamn key?”  
As we stood there in the open, Joel and I noticed there were quite a few infected that had caught up. They bolted down the alleyway. Bill was still messing with his keys.  
“Bill, come on!”  
Finally, Bill found the right key and hastily opened the door. Ellie, Joel and I all rushed in behind. We entered an old laundromat. The door slammed behind us. On the opposite side of the room, there was an open door. I could hear nearby infected through it.  
“Don’t slow down! This place ain’t secure!” Bill was all too pleased we took some time to catch our breath.  
The infected found their way through the open door. Joel noticed this. He whipped out his gun and checked if it was loaded.  
“Bill, they’re comin’ through the door!”  
“Fuckin’ knew it. Take ‘em out. That’s our only way through.”  
Joel and I had already started to shoot at them as Bill sassed us. I watched as Ellie got a little too close.  
“Ellie, stay back!” She instantly ran to stand behind me.  
With the three adults, we all made quick work of the infected. As the last one went down. We all were following Bill again.  
“C’mon, we’re almost there. Follow me.”  
Walking through the door, Joel and I noticed the infected climbing over the barricades. “Oh, shit!” We both exclaimed.  
Joel glared at Bill, “Goddammit, they’re comin’ over!”   
“C’mon, They’re gettin’ through!” Keep going! This way, through the truck!”  
We did exactly as the man said. Joel made sure that Ellie and I went through first. He took up the rear.  
“C’mon, girls. Get through! Move!”  
Coming out of the truck, I watched as Bill had already opened a new door. It looked like the rest. Old and rusty. We all ran towards safety. Joel and Bill threw their bodies on the door to keep the infected from bursting through. Bill quickly locked the thing.  
“Man… That was close.” Ellie paced back and forth as she tried to catch her breath.  
I stood beside her. I eyed Bill. I didn’t know how this man was going to react to all of us. If he was as paranoid as Joel said, I wasn’t going to let him do anything to hurt Ellie.  
“Uh… Thanks,” Ellie took a couple deep breaths, “For the heroics and all.”  
Bill walked towards Ellie. I couldn’t see his face because of the gas mask. I couldn’t tell what the hell he was going to do. I stepped a little closer to Ellie. For a brief second, I shared a look with Joel. He mirrored my confusion.. He had no idea what Bill would do.  
Bill finally took off his mask. I still couldn’t read him. There was a frown on his face and his eyes were squinted at Ellie. He reached one hand behind him while continuing to glare at her.  
There was an awkward pause. Ellie extended a hand. “Uh, Ellie.” She said.   
Instantly, Bill was grabbing Ellie’s hand and wrapping handcuffs around her wrist.   
“Hey, what are you-Mom, Joel?”   
He took the other handcuff and locked it around a pipe on the wall.  
“Hey! You let my daughter go!”  
“Bill!”  
Bill turned around and kicked the back of my knees. I fell to the ground. I groaned at the impact. I could hear Joel shouting in protest only for Bill to pull out a gun and point it at him.  
“Turn around and get on your knees.”  
“Whoa, just hold on a second.”  
“Turn around and get on your knees!” Bill pushed the gun further into Joel’s face.   
Raising his hand, Joel spoke. “Alright.”   
Just as Joel was bending down, Bill did the same thing that he did to me. Joel’s knees hit the floor.  
“Don’t test me.”  
Beside me, I could hear Ellie struggling in her restraints. I eyed her. She threw her whole body into wedging the pipe from the wall. I moved my attention back to Joel when I heard him speak up.  
“Just… take it easy.”  
“You got any bites?”  
Joel let out an annoyed “No.”  
“Anything sproutin’?”  
“No, goddammit! I’m clean!” Joel growled.  
“If I see so much as a twitch…”  
While Bill was preoccupied with Joel, Ellie had really done a number on the pipe. She managed to get it out pretty far. When Bill trailed off, Ellie ripped out the pipe from the wall. Bill turned slightly just as Ellie swung at him.  
“Ow!”  
I jumped up and stopped Ellie from doing any more damage. Joel came to stand in front of us. He looked at Ellie and grabbed the pipe from her hands.  
“Son of a bitch!” Bill shouted.  
Joel turned around to Bill. “Are you done?”  
“Am I done…” Bill coughed. “You come into my house. You set off all my traps. You damn near break my shootin’ arm.” Bill stopped and looked at Ellie and me. “Who the hell are these two? Especially that punk, and Why the hell are they here?”  
“We are none of you goddamn business!” I tried to stop her but Ellie rushed forward. “And we’re here because you owe Joel some favors. And you can start by taking these off!” Ellie shakes her arm at Bill. The handcuffs whipped around while they were still connected to her wrist.  
“Ellie…” I walked up to her. Joel had already placed a hand on her shoulder.  
“Oh, I owe Joel some favors. Is this some kind of joke?” Bill walked to a nearby bar counter.  
“I’ll cut to the chase.” Joel threw the pipe on the ground. We need a car.”  
“Well, it is a joke. Joel needs a car.” Bill voiced mockingly as he shook his head. “Well, if I had one that works, which I sure as hell don’t, what makes you think I’d just give it to you. Huh?” Bill gave Joel a look while pulling out and sharpening his machete. “Yeah, sure Joel! Go ahead! Take my car! Take all my food while you’re at it!” Bill had begun to furiously sharpen his blade.  
“By the looks of it, you could lose some of that food.” Interjected Ellie.  
“Ellie!” I grabbed her shoulder.  
Bill whipped around and pointed his machete at her. “You listen to me, you little shit-”  
“No, fuck you! You handcuffed me to the-”  
Joel stood in between the two. He backed Ellie up. Turning to me, he had a none too pleased look on his face.  
“Can you keep her quiet?”  
“I’ll try. As I’ve said before, she is a teenager, Joel.”  
“I know that.” Joel looked at Ellie, “Stay out of trouble.” He turned back to Bill.  
“Whatever favors you think I owe ya, it ain’t worth that much.”  
“Actually, Bill. They are.” Joel had taken up to leaning on the bar.  
Bill stopped sharpening his blade and looked at Joel. Bill sighed. “Well, it don’t matter. I don’t have a car that works.”  
“But there is one in this town.”  
“Parts. There are parts in this town.” Bill was nodding his head again.  
“Meaning, you could fix one up.”  
A long drawn out sigh came out of Bill. He put down his blade and moved some shit on the counter to the side. Under all that junk was a map.  
“Alright. If I’m gonna do this, there’s some gear I’m gonna need.” Bill pointed to a spot on the map. Ellie and I moved closer to see. “It’s on the other side of town. Now you help me go gather it, and maybe, I can put something together that runs.” He gave a pointed look to Joel. “But after this, I owe you nothin’.” Bill slammed the handcuff keys on the bar.  
“That’s fine.” Joel grabbed the keys and let Ellie out of the cuffs. “Couple days from now we’ll probably be dead anyway.”  
“Good. Follow me.” Bill had grabbed his machete. “Whole goddamn town is booby-trapped. Best stay right on my ass.”  
When Bill was far enough away Ellie said, “Can’t miss it.”  
I scoffed and shoved her arm. A pointed look was sent her way. Joel turned to her and gave her the same glare. She raised her hands up and followed after the two men.  
“Alright, whatever supplies you may want or need, I suggest you grab them.” Bill was already walking towards the door.   
“Alright, Thank you.” Joel nodded at Bill. He looked at us. “Look around. See if there’s anything that we can use.”  
“Alrighty.” I smiled as Ellie drew out the word. She didn’t sound too pleased.  
Joel looked around for a bit. He grabbed a few bottles of alcohol and a handful of energy bars. I made it look like I was looking for stuff but in reality, I was waiting on Joel to finish up. I really didn’t want to wait with Bill. His first impression wasn’t the greatest.  
Joel walked into the back room. Ellie followed him. I moved closer to the two but didn’t enter the room with them.  
“Man, he’s fuckin’ got a stick up his ass.” Ellie leaned on her right leg while crossing her arms.  
“Just…” Joel sighed, “Just stay out of his way.”  
I watched as Ellie sighed and swung her body around. She rolled her eyes at Joel’s comment. I cracked a smile and snorted. This grabbed Joel’s attention. I shook my head at his raised brow. He flicked his eyes to Ellie who had moved to stand by me. Joel glared at the back of her head.  
The look on his face forced a laugh out of me. These two were gonna drive each other up the wall. Good. Both of them could use it. They could both be knocked down a few pegs.  
Joel walked up to a chessboard. There were a few pieces on the board. I couldn’t tell you who was winning. Joel chuckled to himself at the sight. Elle stood to his right and looked at the game.  
“Hey, you know how to play this?”  
“Yeah... Pretty badly, yeah.”  
Ellie nods her head and sighs, “I’ve always wanted to learn.” She leaned down to examine the pieces when Bill shouted at her.  
“Hey! Bobby Fischer! Don’t touch anything on that board!”  
The two whipped around to look at Bill. I eyed him. My eyes unconsciously squinted. I looked over at Ellie to see she held her previously outstretched arm to her body. It was like she had been burned.   
“Bobby what?”  
“Just let it go.” Joel motioned for her to move forward. We were finally gonna move on. I wanted to get out of here asap.   
Bill opened the door and walked out. Joel held it open and motioned for us to walk through. Bill annoyingly yelled at Joel not to leave the door open. Joel shut the door and we kept moving.  
“We have to cross to the other building. Up the stairs. Let’s move it.” Sounds like I’m not the only one who wants us out of here.  
“Psh.” Scoffed Ellie.  
A sigh escaped Joel. “Just… stay with me.”  
“I can’t believe you agreed to this bullshit, Bill.” Aaaand he was talking to himself, “What you shoulda done was left them back there.”   
“You weren’t kidding about him.” I scoffed.  
“Yeah, he’s one of a kind.”  
“So, what kind of trouble are you in? And where the hell’s Tess?” Bill side-eyed Joel.  
Upon the mention of Tess, Joel mirrored the same frown on my face. He snapped out of it quicker than me.  
“It’s just a job. A s-simple drop off.”  
“What are you delivering?” Joel only chuckled at him. “That little brat?”  
“And her momma.”  
Bill chuckled.  
“Oh, haha. Fuck you too.” I gazed at Ellie. She was glaring at Bill.  
I guess Bill found Ellie’s comment humorous. He let out a full-on belly laugh. “Y’know, I hope you know what you’re doin’.”   
“Are you kidding me with this guy?” Ellie’s eye switched between Joel and me.  
Joel completely ignored Ellie’s comment. “So where we goin’, Bill?”  
“My other safe house. It’s more of an armory.”  
Elie frowned. “Wait. I thought we were gonna fix up a car?”  
“We? You know how to fix a-”  
I sigh while Joel shouted, “Bill. Just…”  
“It’s like I said. What I need is on the other side of town. Now, that side of town I never go to ‘cause it’s filled with infected. So, we’re gonna need more guns.” With that, no one said anything more.  
We walked through some more hallways and climbed down a few flights of stairs. I was overjoyed to see that we had gone back to the stairs. I loved them so much back in Boston. At least I’m building some stamina every time I climb up and down these damn things.  
We had found ourselves in a restaurant kitchen. All the old equipment was still here and I’m pretty sure there were twenty-year-old grease stains on the walls.  
Boom! There was a loud crash from the other room. This made me pause. I watched as Joel did the same.  
“Shh. There’s one inside.” I whispered.  
“Oh… I’ve been meaning to take care of that. Relax, its nothin’.” Bill pulled out his machete. “So, you didn’t answer my question about Tess. I mean I thought you were inseparable. Missy over here isn’t a new thing is it?” Bill nodded his head at me.  
In the next room, sure enough, there was a runner. It had been caught in a trap that Bill probably had set up. The thing was being pressed down into a windowsill. When it saw us walk in, it went ballistic.   
“Tess is busy. An’ its none of your business about her.” Joel motioned to me, “But no, she’s ain’t a new thing. She’s Ellie’s mom and will stay with Ellie as soon as we get her to where she needs to be.”  
I spoke up once Joel finished speaking, “And just so we’re clear, I’m not some object that Joel keeps around. Tess told me I could trust Joel and that’s why we’re here. Joel and I have an understanding.”  
“Alight.” Bill began to behead the trapped infected, “This all just sounds to me like there’s trouble in paradise.”  
The head went crashing down to the ground. Blood spurted out of the infected’s neck. A single stream spurted out. Ellie scrunched up her face.  
“Aw, gross.”  
Gross was right. If it wasn’t the sight, it was the smell. That thing was ripe and it didn’t make a great smell mixed with the metallic stench from the freshly exposed blood. Don’t even get me started on the noises it was making.  
“Yeah, guess you could say it's something like that.” Joel mumbled as he examined the mess.  
Bill opened the next door. This one led outside. I was happy to get out of this pungent room. The outside was better but not by much. Bill wasn’t kidding when he said this place was overrun. The smell of each decaying body was floating to where there weren’t any threats. Yeah, I was definitely ready to get out of this place.  
Old cars littered the place. All had varying levels of rust on them and each of their tires were flat.  
“So... why don’t you fix one of these cars?” It was cute how curious she was.   
These were all things I feel like we should go over once we’re not running for our lives. I needed to keep a list and talk with Marlene about them. I guess I could start going over some things while we made our way to her. She is missing school and I may not have all the tools to properly teach her, but I could give it a try.  
A fake gasp came from Bill, “Oh my god! You’re a genius. I mean the whole time, why on earth hadn’t I thought about fixin’ one of these cars?”  
“Oookay, don’t be a dick,” I said glaring at him.  
“Their tires are rotten and their batteries are dead.”  
Ellie scoffs, “Are you done?”  
“Can’t even begin to think what the inside of the engine blocks looks like. Only ones makin’ new car batteries is the military.”  
That’s when the infected chose to make an appearance. “Infected!” I shouted.

x_x

I was so happy that we had three people taking them down. It was quick. I wouldn’t say it was easy, but we finished it and that was that.  
“Alright, you gotta check the barricades again. You neglect the simple shit and now you’re paying for it.” Bill had begun to mumble to himself again. “Y’know what that means… taking all the supplies from the warehouse and lugging it to the east fence…”  
“Okay, well now he’s talking to himself.”  
“Yeah… Bill?”  
“Joel? This way.”  
“You picked a hell of a place to hole up, didn’t ya?” Joel walked behind Bill.  
“You know as bad as those things are, at least they’re predictable. It’s the normal people that scare me.”  
Walking next to Ellie, I quietly snorted. I bumped her arm, “Of course they do.” She chuckled.  
“You of all people should know that.” Bill finished while looking at Joel.  
I frowned. “What does that mean?” Ellie and I said at the said time.  
“Nothin’,”  
I watched Joel. Nothing on his face gave anything away. I was slightly suspicious. I knew what Bill implicated and I wondered what all Joel had done in the past. Was it just him? Did Tess partake in that shit? She said she found them before Tommy went off to join the fireflies. I knew that he had done some nasty shit. I wouldn’t put it past either of them.  
We walked up more stairs to only be met with a backyard. I raised an eyebrow. Where the hell now?  
“So, which way?” It was as if Joel read my mind.  
“We’re here. It’s in the cellar.”   
We all walked up to the cellar doors. Bill led the way in while Joel brought up the back.  
“Well, here we are.” Bil pointed to Ellie, “You don’t touch anything.” He then pointed to Joel, “And you, close the door.” Bill walked up to a gas lamp and turned it on. “Let’s gear up.”  
The place was dingy. I’m not gonna lie. Books, magazines, and all kinds of other shit were strewn about the place. Further, into the place, I could see there was a desk where Bill fixed up and upgraded his weapons. Joel was sure going to make use of that. There were a few other peculiar things like several bombs. There was one that I wasn’t too familiar with.  
Ellie walked around. Her eyes went over all the comic books and magazines that sat in a large pile on top of a bookshelf. Oh, she was gonna try something. Part of me wanted to be the mature adult that I was and tell her off but the more childish and offended part of me wanted to let her do whatever she was planning. Bill was a douchebag and I really didn’t care to stop Ellie from messing with his shit.  
Ellie took another step forward only for Jole to stop her.  
“Uh-uh.” Joel shook his head.  
“What? I need a gun.”  
“No, you don’t.”  
“Joel, I can handle myself.”  
So, the adult side won. I let out a sigh and walked towards the two. “Ellie, what have we said in the past?” I raised an eyebrow.   
She just looked at me. When she realized I wanted an answer out of her she scoffed.  
“That I don’t need a gun because you two can take care of me.”  
“Good. I need you to understand that. No means no.”  
Another scoff came from her before she walked off. She shook her head. I guessed that she rolled her eyes too. Ugh, teenagers.  
“Thanks.”  
“She is my kid. Like mother like daughter.” We both shared a smile.  
A cough from behind us grabbed our attention. Bill was at a table waiting for us to follow.  
“This goes on record as the worst fuckin’ job you’ve ever taken.”  
“Yeah, it’s up there.”  
The two looked at me. Bill was examining me while Joel watched my reaction. I didn’t say anything. I knew this was a shitty experience for all of us. They can be vocal about it. I’ll just stay back here and not comment on how I feel. I don’t exactly want to have a heart to heart with Bill anyway. I just want the hell out of this place.  
Bill moved his gaze back to Joel. “How in the hell is Tess okay with this suicide mission?”  
“It was actually her idea.”  
“Really?” Disbelief was painted all over Bill’s face. “Well, the broad’s not as smart as I thought she was. But… Fuck her.” Bill had lifted a bucket onto the table. He started to load two shotguns. “Seriously, you gotta take that kid back to where ya found her.”  
“That’s not exactly possible.” I finally spoke. Bill only glared at me.  
“Then send her packing; let her find her own way.” Bill completely ignored me.   
I scoffed at his comment. Joel only looked at me as he sat down on the table. His back was to Bill. Joel brushed my hand. “Don’t” was the look he gave me. I let it go.  
“Let me tell you a story. Once upon a time, I had somebody that I cared about.” Surprised, Joel and I looked at Bill, “It was a… partner. Somebody I had to look after. And in this world, that sort of shit is good for one thing. Gettin’ ya killed.” Bill grabbed another shotgun that was leaning against a shelf, “So, ya know what I did? I wisened the fuck up. And I realized it's gotta be just me.”  
“Bill, it… it ain’t like that. It's…”  
“Bullshit, it’s just like that.”  
I went back to silently observing. Joel was going through some mixed feelings. I knew he hated the shit he had gotten himself into but I don’t think he hates it as much as he did in the beginning. It hasn’t been long but I could tell there was progress being made. Yeah, he and Ellie weren’t always on the same page. Hell, I don’t think either of them trusts each other. I’m unsure whether or not he trusts me. But there is a mutual understanding and that’s enough to get us through.   
Bill doesn’t understand that shit. Yes, it could get us killed. I have hope that we’ll make it. As long as we are careful, I think we can get through to the end goal. And maybe things will change. I was hoping that maybe Joel won’t hate us as much and maybe… just maybe we could at least stay in touch. I’d settle for that.  
“Hey!” Bill's shout snapped me out of my thoughts. Joel jumped a little. “What did I say to you when we walked down the steps? What did I say?”   
“I’m just fixing your stupid pile!” Ellie motioned to the exact plie I saw her looking at before. Oh, she did something alright.  
I was smirking a little. I tried to hide it. I didn’t want Ellie to get caught and have to put that shit back. Yeah, I pulled a mom a little bit ago so I’ll let this one slide.   
Joel looked at me. He caught the smirk on my face. He touched my arm and gave me a questioning glance. I just shrugged and moved my attention back to Ellie. Just in enough time, I watched her flip Bill off.  
Unfortunately, Bill had moved his attention away from her. He had seen the little interaction between Joel and I. He just shook his head.  
“You keep babysitting long enough and eventually it's gonna blow up in your face.”  
“Bill.” Joel got up from the table. He had turned around to look at the other man. “Can we please just get on with it?”  
Bill fiddled with the shotgun some more. He then threw it at Joel. “Here. Let’s ‘get on with it’.” Bill imitated Joel.  
haphazardly handed a shotgun, I was actually shocked that Bill even prepared one for me. I guess he saw me as an asset? I don’t know. Maybe he was just having a weird sense of kindness. Ha! That’s a funny one.  
“Alright, before we go any further, I got somethin’ I gotta show ya.” Bill motioned to the bomb table.  
Joel eyed the table. “Whatcha got?”   
“New toy from the toy box. This… is a nail bomb. You gotta be real careful. This thing blows, it shreds anybody standing nearby.”  
Damn. That was a new one. I knew it looked odd to me. I’m glad I chose to stay away from it just in case I did something and it blew up.   
“So we got shotguns and bombs. The hell we doin’ with ‘em?” Looking at Bill, Joel put the bomb into his bag.  
“Well, every few weeks this military caravan rides through town. I assume they’re out lookin’ for supplies but you’d be amazed at the shit that they overlook. Anyway, few months back, they were rolling through and they get overrun by this horde of infected. They were all over the truck. It plows right into the side of the high school. Still sitting there with the battery in it.”  
“So we take that battery and we put it in another car?”  
“Bingo. I wanted to get it, but it seemed too dangerous with the infected on that part of the town. But fuck it… J0el needs a car.” I chuckled at Bill’s comment. We don’t want to be here as much as you don’t want us here.  
Joel had found the bench with all the special upgrades for his weapons. He called out to Bill as he made some modifications. “What if it’s damaged?”  
“Nah, those trucks are built like tanks. It’s just sittin’ there.”  
I had left the men to see what Ellie was up to. I watched as she freely took magazines from a few piles. When she noticed that I was watching, she threw her hands up.  
“I’m not doing what you think I’m doing!” She whisper-yelled.  
“Oh, you’re doing exactly what I think you’re doing. It’s okay though. I don’t give a fuck about his shit. Take what you want. Just don’t get caught.” I smiled at Ellie. She grinned back at me as she stuffed a few more comic books into her bag.  
Then, Bill started to walk this way. Ellie had already stood up and was acting as if she didn’t do anything. Bill looked at me and then to her.  
“Kid, I swear to god… if you took anything-”  
“Hey, man. I don’t need any of your shit. Trust me.”   
“Joel, you are keeping an eye on her, right?”   
“Like a hawk.”  
When Bill had his back to me, I let a small smile show. I almost chuckled but I played it off as a cough. Ellie came up to me and shoved me. I threw my hands up.  
Walking up some stairs, I quickly realized we were in a church. The next room had some beautiful stained glass. It reminded me of before the outbreak. It had been a while since I had stepped into a church.  
“Wow.” I watched as Ellie’s eyes grew wide. I don’t think she’d ever seen such a sight in person.   
Joel chuckled. A smile found its way to his face. “Nice place you got here.”  
“Well, if you got anything to confess, this’d be the place to do it.” Bill said straight faced.   
We followed Bill to a window. He opened it and we all climbed out of it. The sun was setting and it shone into my eyes. I had to use my hand to block it.   
Out in the distance, we could all see the high school. Well, I had to squint to see it. My hand didn’t do much to block out the sun-rays.  
“Look. There’s the school.” Bill pointed out the obvious.  
Joel nodded, “Alright.”  
“Ready?”  
“Guess we’ll find out.” Joel jumped from the roof we were standing on to the ground. We moved forward to where there was a burnt pile of infected.   
“Aw, man.”  
“Alright, let’s go. You don’t need to be looking at that.” I pushed her forward.  
Ellie scoffed. “I’ve seen worse.”  
“The mall?”  
“Yeah...”  
“Past this gate, it’s all new territory to me.” Bill said once Joel walked through a gate. Stairs led down to the next level of a massive cemetery. This is a church. It made sense to one outside the place.   
This place must’ve been here for a long ass time. There were so many graves. Not that was shocking in the apocalypse. But still….  
As we moved through the place, we soon found out this place was just as Bill has described it. Infected filled the place to the brim. Clickers were around every fucking corner.  
I made sure Ellie was right behind me. I was pretty sure that Joel even checked up on her. He would occasionally look back at the two of us.   
We somehow maneuvered around all the clickers only to come face to face with another locked gate. Bill quickly approached us and whipped out a key. With the gate now unlocked, we all scrambled out.   
The four of us were now in a neighborhood. Runners littered the place. It was surprisingly easy to sneak around all of them. This landed us in a garage. Our path to the next house’s backyard was obstructed. Joel tried a door, but there was something the matter with it.  
“It’s tied on the other side.” Joel sighed.  
“What about going through here?” Ellie motioned to the doggie door.  
I glanced at her, “The doggie door?”  
Joel looked at the board on the door and sighed. He gripped it on both sides and wrenched it off the door. It was just big enough for Ellie to crawl through.  
“Be careful.” I made sure to whisper before she went through.  
“I’ll be extra careful.” Then Ellie squeezed through.  
“Maybe you should have given her a gun.” Bill commented behind us. Joel and I flashed Bill a nasty look. He raised his hands in defence.  
Quiet scratches on wood, a few footsteps and viola. The door was open. Ellie stood behind it with a proud smile. I patted her arm.  
That’s when Joel noticed the clickers that practically guarded the place. I knew giving him all the shiv supplies would come in handy. It took a second, but Joel quickly crafted more shives. We progress forward. It was quick, and it was easy. As is with a lot of the things we do. Sneaky was our specialty.   
“Alright, c’mon. Let’s get up on this RV and over. We should be clear.”  
“Who the hell left this here? You have friends in town?” Ellie questioned behind us.  
“No,” Bill sounded like he was disciplining a child. “Although, I got some idea who mighta come through here. School’s on the other side of this house. Let’s get inside.”  
“C’mon, Ellie.” Joel jabbed his head in the direction we were going.  
Walking through the sliding door, I heard Bill call for us from in the garage. I went to see what’s up when Joel stopped me. He announced that he was gonna check upstairs. I waited for him at the bottom of the stairs. I still didn’t want to wait near Bill.  
Ellie came up to me and asked where Joel was. I told her. She climbed up the stairs, claiming that she’d be right back. I nodded.  
From where I stood, I could hear bits and pieces of what those two were talking about. The words “sorry” and “Tess” were what I could gather. I instantly knew what she had gone up there to do.   
Oh, that baby girl. I felt a pride well up in my chest. I raised her good. I didn’t think I could do it at first, but I surprised myself. This girl was so selfless.  
Joel came down the stairs first. He wore a frown as he climbed down. I offered him a small smile. He gave me one back, but it soon left his face once he looked away. Ellie on the other hand seemed to have a weight lifted off her shoulders. I pulled her to me and kissed the top of her head.  
“You did good baby-girl.”  
“Thanks, mom.”  
I let her go and we walked to where the boys were. Both of them were chatting silently. When we entered the garage, they stopped and moved to the door.  
Upon opening the door, the sight of the school welcomed us. Busses were parked up front, infected students and teachers alike scrambled around school grounds, and the rear end of the military truck hung out of the high school building.  
“What’d I tell ya? There’s that truck. Sticking out of the school right there. C’mon.”

x_x

There were quite a few infected around the area. I would imagine so, seeing how the school would have been jam-packed with the amount of students that typically attended.   
Because of the sheer amount, it took the three of us longer to take ‘em all down. As soon as we finished them off, we were rushed by a bigger group of them. I cringed at the thought of how many more infected their screams would attract.  
It was a lot. We quickly got over the school fence and to the truck. The door right next to it was locked. We had to scutter around to find a new entrance. The only problem was that there were more infected approaching the school as each second passed. Bill found a window we all could fit through.   
All of us but Joel had gotten in. Just as Joel climbed through, a clicker grabbed onto his ankle. I whipped out my shotgun and shot the creature’s face. Its head blew to bits. Some landed on my face and hands. I made a disgusted noise.  
Slamming the window shut, Joel and I turned to Bill.  
“That’s not gonna hold.” I said, motioning to the window.  
“Bill, make it fast!”  
The infected had found the locked door and were banging on it. I could tell each of them slammed their bodies into the door. It made loud booming noises that would only bring in more infected. Beside the door was a metal shelving unit. Joel motioned at Ellie and I.  
“Grab this!” The three of us moved the shelves in front of the door. Each of us followed the other in pressing our body to the shelves. “Please tell me you’re done!”  
Bill wrenches the truck’s hood up. I watched as he stared at what’s inside. Disbelief spread across his face.  
“It’s empty…”  
“What!” Joel left Ellie and I to hold the shelf against the door.  
“It's fuckin’ empty!”  
“Guys!” Both Ellie and I shouted. Ellie had to move to get a better grip on the shelf.  
“Bill, where too?”  
“Uh,” I could see the gears working in his head. He almost froze in order to go through all the possible next steps.  
Joel got impatient and shouted. “Bill, where?”  
“Anywhere but here.”  
I scoffed. All that only for “anywhere but here”? I let go of the shelf right as Joe grabbed Ellie.  
“Y’all better haul ass, c’mon!”  
We ran through the next set of doors as the infected from outside broke into the previous room. Joel and I gripped a door on each side and slammed them shut. Joel kept them shut while I reached up to lock the doors. Once it was locked, we moved through the school. Thankfully, there weren’t too many infected in this place.   
Like all doors are in this godforsaken place, some massive equipment blocked it. Joel had to have Bill and I help him open the door. We all threw our shoulders into the door. It opened and we all squeezed through the small opening.  
“There’s more on the way. Barricade the doors.”  
]Yes, Bill, we know. Thanks for the heads up, Captain Obvious. Joel and I pushed what was previously blocking the door back into its spot. The four of us took a breather.   
“That’s not gonna hold them for long.”  
As Joel spoke, a loud noise came from the opposite side of the room. I looked where the sound was coming from. Two gym doors rattled and shook.   
“That don’t sound good.” Joel trailed off.  
Bursting through the door was a massive bloater. A fucking bloater! I hadn’t ever seen one of these guys. I was with the Fireflies by the time these things had time to make an appearance. I had heard many stories though.  
“Holy shit!” I shouted  
At the same time as me, Joel said, “Oh, no…”  
Ellie, confused, asked, “What the fuck is that thing?”  
“It’s a goddamn bloater!” Bill shouted as he loaded his shotgun.  
“A what?” Ellie had taken to hiding behind one of the many boxes in the gym.  
Ignoring Ellie’s question, I pulled out one of my molotovs. “You thinkin’ what I’m thinkin’?” My gaze moved from the bloater to Joel.  
“Yeah, I got you.”  
“Bill, shoot the thing while we do our thing. If we do this right, then the thing should go down no problem.” I lit the cloth.  
“How the fuck do you know it’ll work?” Bill asked.  
“I did some research. And I knew a man. He did some crazy shit.” I laughed as I threw my molotov. The bloater caught a flame and the surrounding fungus blackened.  
“Who the fuck was crazy enough to-”  
“Leave it, Bill!” I motioned for Joel to throw his molotov. This had to be timed perfectly.  
The second molotov blew up and the bloater thrashed around. Its charred body went up in flames again. The stench made my stomach swirl. Bill shot several rounds and the thing still hadn’t gone down.  
“Dammit!” I scrambled around to grab another molotov.  
“Y/N!”  
“I got it, I got it!”   
With the final molotov, the monster went down. The flames still ate away at it as the thing lay dead on the ground. I scrunched my face up once more.   
The sight was enough for me to throw up. I bent down and let whatever was in my stomach out. Ellie walked over to me and rubbed my back. When I was finished, she offered me my water bottle and a cloth. I took it and cleaned myself up.  
“Ya good?” Joel placed a hand on my shoulder when I threw away the cloth.  
“Yeah.”  
“Geez, what was up with that big guy?”  
“It’s been infected for a long time.” I informed Ellie.  
Cutting in, Joel explained, “We call them bloaters.”  
“Bloater... Okay, got it.” Ellie struggled to get that out as she took large breaths of air.  
“I hate to interrupt your little biology lesson, but can we get the fuck out of here? Please?” Bill impatiently waited by some folded up bleachers. “Let’s get on top of these bleachers. Gimme a boost, Joel.”  
Sighing, Joel walked to where Bill stood. I followed him. He leaned against the bleachers and tried to lift Bill up. It was a comical sight. Bill wasn’t the most fit of individuals, and Joel clearly was struggling to lift him up.  
Joel let out a strangled, “Help.”  
Trying not to laugh, I helped him lift Bill up. The man sure was heavy. Once he was at a spot where he could pull himself up, we let go of his feet and Bill pulled himself up all the way up.  
Ellie went up next. This time Joel lifted her with ease. She was a little thing. I’ve tried to get her to eat a little more but she claimed she was full every time. So I didn’t push.  
Suddenly, more infected made it through a hole in the wall. There were only three. Joel and I waited until they got close enough and fired one shot from our shotguns. The shots tore them to shreds.  
Joel was the one to boost me while Ellie helped me up. Bill helped Joel get up once I was able to pull myself onto the bleachers. We all walked through a window to the outside.  
As soon as we touched the ground, infected were after us. A fence was blocking our way out, but Ellie ended up finding a ladder. Joel took out some infected as the rest of us climbed up the ladder. Once Joel was up and around the fence, Bill pushed the ladder back separating us from the infected.  
“Inside the house, now!” Bill shouted.  
We all shuffled in. Bill shut the door behind him. The infected’s groans and screams were muffled from behind the back door. Ellie took a few breaths beside me.  
“So, that worked out well.”  
I flashed her a look that told her that her sass was not appreciated at the moment. Joel came up beside me. The same look painted on his face. She held her hands up in surrender.  
“Okay, ah. I’m gonna go check out this side of the house.” She announced as she left the adults to yell at each other.  
I could tell that this wouldn’t go well, so I decided to let Joel hash this out. “I’m gonna go watch her. Make sure she doesn’t get into any kind of trouble.”  
I could hear her meddling with something in the garage. When I entered the room, my eyes landed on the truck. It took up most of the space. How could you not be drawn to it? The thing was a teal color which I thought was an odd choice.   
“You think it still runs?” Ellie, at the end of the garage, held up two keys.  
“I don’t know. We could try it though.”  
Ellie excitedly opened the driver seat door and clambered in. She shoved the keys into the ignition and turned the key. It whirred but didn’t turn over. It sounded quite pathetic.  
Stomping from the other room headed towards Ellie and me. Joel and Bill ran through the doorway. Ellie and I smiled at the two.  
“Look at what I found.” Her smile stretched into a grin. “It’s still got some juice in it.”  
Bill walked to the hood of the truck. It was open and displaying the battery for all to see.   
“That’s my battery!” Bill looked through the doorway, “That fuckin’ asshole…” Next thing, he’s slamming the hood down. “Get out.”   
Bill walked to the driver side. I pulled Ellie out to stand next to me. Bill tried the truck. It whirred like the first time but still didn’t turn over.  
“The battery’s drained but the cells are alive.”  
“Meaning?” Joel questioned.  
“Meaning we push it, get it started, and the alternator will recharge the battery.”  
Joel snickered. “Is that your guess?”  
“Look, you wanted a ‘planB’. This is good as it gets.”  
Joel stood on the other side of the door. Ellie and I moved up to look at him through the driver’s window. I watched as he stared at the truck’s hood. He had his hand on his hips and a deep frown on his face. He was thinking. Letting out a sigh, he looked at us.  
“What are you thinking?” I asked.  
“I’m thinking Elie drives and we push.”  
Bill had bent down by a duffle bag on the ground. A shotgun was placed inside along with an assortment of ammo.  
“Jesus…” Bill scoffed, “That’s more of my stuff.”  
Bill started rambling to himself again. I tuned it out. I watched as Joel walked off, back into the house. I decided to stay with Ellie. It took Joel a couple of minutes to come back. He handed a note to Bill before he walked over to us.  
“You gonna be okay with this?”  
“Yeah, not a problem.” Ellie voiced.  
“You’re doin’ a good job. I figure you should know that.” Joel stared Ellie in the eyes. I was glad these moments were appearing more and more. It touched my heart to see them interact this way.  
“I won't let you down with this.” She promised with a head shake.  
Joel sighed. “Alright…” he backed up and looked at me, “How about you?”  
“Me? I’m fine. I taught her how to drive a few times. She should know what to do.”  
“I meant how are you doin’?” Joel chuckled a little.  
“Oh, um… I’m doing okay. I just want to get out of here. I’m ready to get to Tommy’s.”  
“You and me both. It should be a straight shot from here. I… uh.” He was struggling to say something. I was about to stop him when he finally got it out. “I appreciate you bein’ here. I can’t imagine what I’d be like If you weren’t.”  
“Well, you’d have to kill me to separate me from Ellie. However, if something were to happen to me I would be okay with the knowledge that she’s with you.” He gave me a tight smile. I smiled back and patted his arm. “Let’s go do this thing.”  
“Alright, Bill. Let’s get goin’.” Joel said once we reached the back of the truck.  
Bill opened the garage door and made his way next to Joel. Bill tried explaining what to do when Ellie sassed him. She already knew this shit because I was a damn good teacher.  
“How the hell do you know how to-”  
“Because I fucking taught her.” That shut him up.  
We pushed the truck out of the garage.  
“Alright Ellie, get ready.” Joel informed the girl.  
It rolled down the driveway. Ellie turned the key and the truck whirred yet again, but still nothing.  
“Perfect. Hey, good job, kid!”  
“Bill, not helpin’. Ellie We’re gonna give it another go. Just stay focused.”  
The damn thing was heavy. We struggled a bit, but we got it closer to the upcoming hill. Only, the infected had to surprise us at the last second. We did this for several rounds until we finally got it over the hill.  
The truck turned on. We all whooped and hollered. Giving thanks to Ellie, we rushed to the bed of the truck. The infected were hot on our heels. Bill slammed his hand on the side to get Ellie to punch it.

x_x

We drove for ten minutes before Bill had Ellie stop the truck. We all clambered out of the bed. Bill grabbed his bag and threw it on. I told Ellie to keep her running.  
“That girl nearly got us killed.”  
“You gotta admit, she did hold her own back there.”  
Bill just laughed as he walked towards a set of buildings. “You ain’t gonna make it.” Joel and I watched as he walked off. Bill suddenly stopped, “Oh, oh. Ah… Here.” He threw a rubber tube at Joel.  
“What’s this?”  
“You’d be amazed at how many cars still have gas in ‘em.”  
Joel pointed at Bill. “‘preciate it. Look, Bill. um… about your buddy back there… Uh, that’s a tough deal. And I’m uh…”  
Bill leaned toward Joel, “We square?”  
Sighing, Joel nodded and said, “We;re square.”  
“Then get the fuck out of my town.” Bill motioned with his head. His eyes never left Joel’s. He then grabbed his bag and walked off.  
Joel stared after Bill. I tugged on his shirt and motioned to Ellie in the truck. He nodded and we walked away.


	7. Chapter 6: Oops... There Goes The Truck.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The three of of you get up to shenanigans while in the truck yet a series of unfortunate events cause the fun and games to end.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This sucker is short. I didn’t get to writing it until Friday and then Sunday was a busy day. I tired to get it a little longer and I am content with the mere 4k words. I don’t know when the next one will be uploaded. My internet is down and I can’t really do much. I am using my hotspot for this. That’s how I’m able to write, go to class, etc. Anyway, I hope you enjoy! Please comment and tell me what you guys think!

Summer 2033

It was quiet at first. The only noises were the thunder in the background and the thrum of the truck. I kept my gaze on the trees while they became blurry as we passed them. This reminded me of some nostalgic memories of past family road trips. I smiled.  
As soon as we had gotten into the truck, Ellie clambered into the back seat and stared out the window. She asked what Bill said. Joel only held up the rubber tube. She nodded, then went back to her window.  
“Well, this is exciting.” Ellie said after thirty minutes.  
I leaned back to gace at her, “You can put on your headphones. It makes things go by quicker.”  
“How long is it gonna take?”  
Joel let out a laugh. “It’ll be a couple of days. Might be more dependin’ on how crowded the roads are.”  
“Uuuugh!”  
“We can do stuff while we wait.” I voiced.  
“Like what?”  
“Well, I know a certain someone who has missed three weeks worth of school.”  
Ellie let out a loud groan and flopped on the back seat. I knew she detested me right now. I couldn’t help it. I was a teacher. It’s in my nature. She needs to know this stuff, anyway.  
“Are we going to do anything that’ll bring me any entertainment?”  
“I have a few road trip games we can annoy Joel with.”  
This time it was Joel's turn to groan. “Please don’t.”  
“We’ll see.”  
I looked back at Ellie with a grin. She grinned back at me. After a few minutes, Ellie pulled out her Walkman and zoned everything out. The car filled with silence again.  
I had no idea where we were going. Since it was going to take a few days, my guess was that Tommy lived somewhere on the west coast. It took a day's trip to get from where I lived in Iowa, to Florida. So, where we were going must be clear on the opposite side of the country.  
“Where is it we’re going exactly?” I asked.  
Joel glanced at me. “Last I heard, Tommy was holed up somewhere in Jackson City.”  
“Wyoming?”  
“Yeah…”  
“Well, damn. Okay. If, uh.. If you need a break from driving, I can drive while you rest. I Know this shit can get tiring.”  
There was a moment of silence. “You said you taught Ellie how to drive?” I gave him a nod, “How d'you even learn to drive? You said you were fourteen when the world went to shit.”  
“Oh, Um. Tess… uh, Tess taught me. It was the year I turned sixteen; I was bitching about how I wouldn’t get the chance to learn.” A lump formed in my throat and a few tears burned in my eyes. “So, uh… she hot-wired a vehicle and taught me. Not that it was important. I didn’t really drive one after that. Marlene maybe had me drive once and it was to transport some supplies.”  
Joel only nodded. “You said you knew Tommy?”  
“Oh, boy.” I laughed as I wiped a few stray tears, “That’s a story. I guess we were decent watch partners because we ended up paired up all the time. Whenever Marlene needed someone to help with scavenging, she would team me up with your brother. We shared so many dumbass stories. I know quite a bit about you and your exciting upbringing. You, sir, got into so much trouble.”  
Joel let out a laugh, “Did he tell you about the one time with the lake and our daddy’s truck?” A small smile planted itself on Joel’s lips.  
“Oh, yeah!” We shared a laugh, “Sounds like you had some fun times as a teen.”  
The smile on his face grew. I watched as his eyes quickly flicked to his watch and back to the road. A few seconds passed and his smile slowly turned into a frown, ending our conversation.

x_x

"So, imagine that you're this Roman soldier just casually guarding the Ebro when a rumbling starts. It shakes the earth. There are horns being blown, but they’re not like any horns you’ve ever heard. Out in the distance, a massive beast appears. It has tusks and a long trunk. A basket sits atop its back and there they are, the Carthaginians. What do the Romans do? They drop their little pointy sticks and run away.Thus, the start of the second Punic War. ” I chuckled as I finished speaking.  
“You’re joking?” Ellie asked with wide eyes. A grin plastered on her face.  
“Nope. I would run too. If I saw an elephant for the first time and it was charging straight toward me, I’d run away.”  
“Pssh, I could take ’em”  
“Sure, you could.” Joel chuckled.  
“Uh, yeah I could.”  
“Needless to say, Hannibal didn’t play around.”  
Smiling, Ellie said, “Awesome.”   
“Okay kiddo, I’m all historied out.”  
“Okay, I’m gonna try to get-” Ellie yawned, “Some sleep.”  
“‘Kay.” I craned back to give her a smile.  
A few minutes passed. I looked in the rear-view mirror to see that Ellie had laid down in the back seat. That was fast. Moving my gaze to Joel, I watched as he kept his eyes on the road. He still had a small smile on his face. Glad I could amuse the unamusable.  
“What?” Joel glanced at me.  
“Nothing. You look tired. You want me to take over?”  
He shook his head. “No.”  
“Ya sure? It's no big deal.” I didn’t want to press too hard, but I knew he needed the sleep.  
“Y/N, I got it. You should get some sleep.”  
“You need it more than me.” I argued.  
“Will you let it go?”  
“I’m just looking out for you.”  
“You don’t have to do that.” Joel shook his head.  
“Well, you are the one who’s taking us across the country which is crawling with infected, hunters and who know what else. I’d say I should make sure our guide is rested up just in case we were to be thrown into some deep shit. We kinda want you awake enough for that.”  
A sight left Joel, “If I let you drive, will you leave it?”  
“Yes.”  
Joel grumbled under his breath as he pulled over. Leaving the car in park, we both got out and switched spots. I put the car into drive and we were off. It wasn’t five minutes later that I saw that Joel had passed out.  
His eyes were closed. His head rested on his arm which he had pressed against the window. Joel looked peaceful. As do most people when they sleep.  
I drove for what felt like an hour. Joel would make a few sounds in his sleep. There were even a few words I picked up on a lot of “No, don’t”s and   
“I’m sorry”s. What I wasn’t expecting was him occasionally calling out Ellie’s name.   
“Awe, man!” Ellie exclaimed.  
Beside me, Joel jumped. His eyes were blown wide as he shouted something unintelligible. The both of us made eye contact. Moving our attention to Ellie, we watched as she sat up.  
“What happened to sleepin’?” Joel said, annoyed that she interrupted his sleep.  
Ellie scoffs, “Okay, I know it doesn’t look like it, but this here is not a bad read.” She lifted a comic that had SAVAGE STARLIGHT written on the cover. “Only one problem. Right there.” She pointed to the back cover, “To. Be. Continued! Ugh, I hate cliffhangers…”  
Joel brows drew together, “Where did you get that?”  
I laughed and he looked at me funny. I couldn’t look at him for too long. I had to switch back and forth between the road and whoever was talking.  
“Uh… Back at Bills. I mean, all this stuff was just lying there.”  
Joel let out a deep sigh, “What else did ya get?”  
Ellie grinned when Joel didn’t lecture her. He looked at me and gave me a “really” face. I just shrugged with a chuckle.  
“Well...” Ellie drew in Joel’s attention while I looked back at the road. “Here. Does this make you all nostalgic?”  
I laughed when I saw a cassette tape in Ellie’s grasp. I didn’t think Joel was that old. He couldn’t be any older than his late forties.  
“Y’know that was actually before my time.” Joel shook his head while taking it. He then chuckled, “That is a winner though.” Joel reached down and inserted the cassette tape into the radio.   
An old country song played. I groaned. Country was one of the few genres I rarely listened to. Well… back when I had music to listen to.   
“Oh, man…” Joel groaned.  
I guess he didn’t like this sort of stuff. I would have thought coming from Texas, he’d enjoy country music. However, he did grow up in the eighties/nineties. He could be really into grunge, punk, and alternative. I hoped so. That shit was the good stuff.  
“Well, it's better than nothing.”  
“Why don’t we try one of the tapes Joel found?” I looked in the rearview mirror to look at Ellie.  
“Psssh, no! Those are sacred! They will only play in my Walkman.”  
“Okay, okay. I was just asking.”  
There was a moment of quiet. Joel had laid his head back. It rested on the headrest. He stared through the windshield as we drove on. I had focused back on the road. That’s when Ellie thought to break the silence.  
“Oh, I bet ‘your friend’ will be missing this tonight.” I could hear her shuffle through her bag. “It’s light on the reading, but it’s got some interesting photos.”  
At that odd comment, Joel and I looked back at Ellie. I freaked out when I saw what she held. I didn’t see her grab that one!  
“Now, Ellie, that ain’t for kids.”  
“Ellie, give that to Joel. You don’t need to be looking at that!”  
“Whoa! How… how the hell would he even walk around with that thing?” She showed a picture to Joel.  
“Joel!” I shouted.  
Joel reached back at Ellie, “Get rid of that! Just-”  
“Hold your horses, I want to see what all the fuss is about.” She pulled back the magazine.  
“Ellie Williams, you will get rid of that thing right now!”  
“Oh, why are these all stuck together?” The truck went silent for a moment.  
“Uh…”  
“Oh, my gosh! Joel grab it from her!”  
“I’m just fucking with you two!” Ellie rolled down her window and threw out the magazine. “Bye, bye dude!”  
I took a deep sigh. That horrified me, and I was still trying to wrap my head around what just happened. What the actual hell? Whatever. It was done and over with. I couldn’t really do anything about it. Parenting is hard.  
“Y’know what?” Ellie popped her head above the center console and listened to the music. “This isn’t that bad.” She reached through and turned up the music. What happened to her seat belt?  
Scoffing, Joel voiced, “Why don’t you try to get some sleep, alright?”  
“Pffft, I’m not even tired.” Ellie leaned back into the back seat.

x_x

Another half hour had passed and Ellie had passed out. I looked back at her occasionally in the rearview mirror. She was curled up facing the back rest and I could see her body move as she took little breaths. I smiled at the sight.  
Joel was still awake. I guess that little cat nap was just enough sleep for him. He stared straight ahead beside me. He was frowning but I just figured that was his resting bitch face.  
“Did you get enough sleep?” I watched as he turned to face me.  
“Don’t know. I just can’t fall asleep.”  
“Okay… You wanna take over then? It’ll give you something to do.”  
“If that’s what ya want.”  
“K,”  
I pulled over and we switched. Joel pulled back onto the road and I laid my head on the widow. A few minutes passed and my eyelids dropped. I was out like a light.

x_x

The truck slowly woke me up. We had entered a city. There weren’t any signs around to see which one. I didn’t think we had gotten any farther than Ohio. That would be impossible. Unless I had been asleep for that long. I doubt it though.  
“Oh, no no no no.” Joel looked at the road ahead of us. Cars blocked the street.   
The highway veered off into another direction, but it looked suspicious. I hadn’t been alone for too long, but I knew what this could mean. I met Joel’s gaze. He knew it too. We had to decide what to do next.  
“Well, perfect.” Joel said, motioning to the mess in front of us.  
“What are you thinking?”  
“We could turn off here but it could be something we don’t want to run into.”  
“That’s what I was thinking. You’re the one who knows this route better. I say we turn around and go the other way.”  
“But that would set us off another day.”  
“I know, but at least we’d be safe.”  
Joel blew air out of his nose. He looked back. Joel’s line of sight lingered there. He was thinking long and hard about what to do next. Looking back to me, we both stared at each other.  
Behind us, Elie had woken up. With a yawn, she said, “Now what?”  
I sighed and nodded at Joel. My eyes never left his.   
Taking another deep breath, Joel said, “Screw it.”  
Putting the car in reverse, he backed up until we were far enough to turn down the exit. I felt my muscles tense up. I was unsure of this, but I knew that if we got into trouble we could get out of it. I just needed to be ready.   
Looking over at Joel, I could see that his knuckles had turned white. The muscles in his arm flexed as he drove. He felt the same way I did.  
We drove for a few minutes. The downtown area here wasn’t as bad as Boston’s. The buildings here were still somewhat intact and the road looked less eroded. Looked back at Ellie, I watched her examining the buildings as we drove by.   
Suddenly, I was thrown forward. My seat belt kept me from hitting my head on the dashboard.   
I glared at Joel. “Easy.”  
“Please help!” A man held his gut and walked a few feet ahead of us.  
The “hurt” man didn’t seem like he was hurt. His clothes weren’t covered in blood, he was limping but it looked fake, his face didn’t even convey the right emotions. This man wasn’t hurt. This was a trap. I knew this shit was going to happen. Dammit Joel!  
“Holy shit…” Ellie looked concerned. “Are we gonna help him?” She looked to me.  
This wasn’t how I wanted her to find out. I knew that school didn’t teach those kids anything useful. Ellie had no clue what people were like outside the quarantine zone. I really wished this wasn’t how she found out.  
Joel’s face got real dark. He glared at the man. I looked from Joel to Ellie.  
“Put your seatbelt on, Ellie.” She flashed me a confused face.  
“What about the guy?” Ellie’s seatbelt clicked once she had finished talking.  
“Oh, he ain’t even hurt.” Joel wrapped both hands around the steering wheel. His eyes focused on the man.  
I knew exactly what he was going to do. I gripped on to the door and the armrest. I felt fear sprout in my chest. Oh, here we go.  
As Joel pressed on the gas pedal, the truck spurred forward. The velocity had my head smacking against the headrest. Ellie made a sound. I hoped she grabbed onto something.  
“Oh, fuck! Go! Go! Go!” The man that feigned being hurt shouted as he pulled out a gun. He shot a few rounds but they went straight through the windshield and out the back window. The three of us bent down to avoid the bullets.  
A few more men had appeared. Some shot at us while the other chased after the truck. The man who was in front of us didn’t move as we headed straight for him. The hood collided with his body. He hit the windshield and then slid off the truck. I didn’t pay attention to where he landed because I was hyper-focused on where Joel was taking us.  
“Jesus!” Joel shouted as he concentrated on the road ahead of him.  
Some men popped out of nowhere and threw bricks at our windows. They shattered upon impact. I bent down to avoid the bricks that flew through the window.  
A shriek came from the tired as Joel swerved to steer clear of the new arrivals. It wasn’t until we reached a four-way stop that we met something unavoidable. The men, hunters, let a massive bus down a hill. It came racing down right into my side of the truck. I shielded my face with my arms just before impact.  
“Oh, not good!” Ellie shouted.  
We skirted across the road with the force of the bus’s impact. Joel still had the wheel held tightly in his hands. He maneuvered us as best he could. We ended up crashing into what used to be a convenient store.   
I groaned. Then Ellie crossed my mind. I was jumping up to look back at her. “Ellie?”  
“I’m okay. I’m okay.”  
I heard Joel groan beside me. I turned to him, “You good?”  
“Yeah, you?” Joel groaned again.  
My reply came out as a breathy, “Yes.”  
“Then get out quick.”  
As I undid my seatbelt, the door beside me opened. A hunter came out of nowhere and grabbed me. I struggled in his hold. My foot hooked onto the armrest which kept him from pulling me out of the truck. Joel tried reaching for me but another man came up and grabbed a hold of him. They dragged him out of my sight.  
“Ellie! Grab Joel’s pipe!” Joel still had the pipe he found at Bill’s place. With the scissors still taped onto it, it would make a good enough weapon to fend off the motherfuckers.  
"Let go of her, you chickenshit!” Ellie leaped out of the truck and buried the pipe into the hunter’s shoulder.  
With the man distracted, I could get a hold of him. I dug my finger into his fresh wound. The hunter howled. Right as I was about to throw him to the ground, I heard Ellie scream.  
While the hunter distracted me, I hadn’t noticed that another hunter had come up and snatched Ellie. He had dragged her to the front of the store. She was too far away for me to reach, and I was also being held down by my own personal attacker.   
My head suddenly slammed into the floor. My forehead made an unpleasant crack. My sight became blurry and I experienced some vertigo. The room spun. It wasn’t until the man was flung off me that I snapped out of my daze. Joel, at some point, saved Ellie and moved to subdue my attacker.   
“C’mon, catch your breath. We’re leavin’.” Joel tossed me my bag once I stood up.  
I slipped it on right as a bullet zipped past me. I crouched down. Five more hunters hurtled over the bus that had previously crashed into us. I scoffed. How many of these shits were in the area?  
Joel and I picked them off one by one. Ellie hung back and blended into the background. Taking down the last hunter, Joel cleaned off his shiv.   
“Alright, I think that’s the last of ‘em. You okay?” Looking at Ellie, Joel scanned her for any wounds.  
“Yeah, I guess so.”  
Joel nodded at Ellie. He then walked over to me. I watched as he eyed my temple. With a frown, Joel pulled out a cloth. He poured some alcohol on it and reached up to dab the cloth on my forehead. It stung a bit.  
The stinging quickly became the last of my concerns when I lost my balance. I got woozy and the room spun again. I think it was safe to say that I at least had a mild concussion.  
“Whoa.” Joel steadied me. “You good?”  
“I’m breathing. That’s what’s important.”   
“Okay…” Joel’s voice came out unsure as he eyed me. “Alright, we need to get the hell out of here. You know the drill. Look around. See if there’s anything we can use.”  
“Roger that.” Sighed Ellie.  
We searched high and low. Finding smaller things here and there, we slowly migrated out of the convenient store. Joel walked over to the next building while I looked for an exit.  
It didn’t take me long. On the far left was an old garage door. This typically meant that we’d find an exit through here. I can imagine this would be the way out.  
“Joel, I found the way out.”  
“M’kay, gimme just a second.”  
Ellie made her way to me. She was fiddling with something. I looked over to see that she was holding another comic book. It looked to be the same series she had stolen from Bill’s.  
“What ya got there, girlfriend?”  
“Oh, Joel found it. I’ve been flipping through it and it looks awesome.”  
I smiled at her, “Okay, not to self: be on the lookout for those comics. Shouldn’t be too hard since we sneak through a shit ton of old houses.”  
“Ready to go, ladies?” Joel questioned, interrupting our conversation.  
“Yes, I want to get out of here!” Ellie groaned while looking up at the sky.  
Joel struggled to get the door up, I stepped up and helped him lift it. Joel Urged Ellie to go through and find something to hold the door up for us. Even with the two of us, the metal door’s weight was too heavy for us to hold up.  
“Um, there’s some pretty gnarly stuff in here.”  
“Ellie!” Joel and I shouted.  
“Right.”  
There was some shuffling around before a metal table with wheels pushed through the gap. Joel and I dropped the door. I paused to make sure it would hold. Joel had already dropped down and shuffled through the opening. When I was sure it was alright, I crouched and snuck through.  
The door we entered was utterly disgusting. There were two tables that displayed rotting corpses. Piles of clothing were strewn about the room. The smell was the worst part. I gagged.  
“Fuckin’ hunters. See, this could’ve been us.”  
“Man, that’s a lot of people that didn’t make it.” As she spoke, Ellie lifted a shoe from a pile.  
I shook my head as I looked away from her. I let out a deep sigh as I turned to Joel, “I told you to turn the damn truck around.”  
“I know that, dammit.” Joel hissed at me through his teeth.  
Trying to break up whatever was about to start, Ellie chimed in. “At least we lived.”  
“Barely.” I interjected.  
Joel sighed as he walked past me, “C’mon, let’s get out of here.”  
Opening a door on the far wall, Joel nudged his head towards the opening. Ellie followed him. I was right behind her.   
As always, there was another fight of stairs. However, it looked like we didn’t have too many to climb. There was at least one good thing in this complete mess.  
“How did you know?” Ellie suddenly asked.  
Looking back at her, Joel raised an eyebrow. “‘Bout what?”  
“About the ambush?”  
“I’ve been on both sides.” Joel sighed.  
“Oh,”  
So my suspicions were correct. I knew he must have done some kind of shit. What Bill had said only made me wonder. This just confirmed it. Joel was a hunter.   
I knew that Tommy said he had done some shit as well. He never went into too much detail, but I’m pretty sure he was with Joel while he was a hunter. That only made me believe that Tess was one too.   
Man, shit when down for her. Not that what we were doing was any better. Aimlessly wandering the country with nowhere to go isn’t exactly my kind of paradise. It was better than this, though. I wonder what Tess would have thought. I frowned.  
We made it to the top of the stairs. Joel opened another door, which led to a hallway. In that hallway, another room contained beds and cots. This was where these guys slept. There were quite a few supplies here and Joel swiped them up. He passed me a few things.  
“So, ah… you kill a lot of innocent people?” Ellie sounded unsure. I knew she didn’t want to push the man. He wasn’t very “sharing is caring” about his past.  
Joel only grunted. I held back a chuckle. I knew he wasn’t going to be too keen about Ellie’s question. So, in Joel fashion, he only answered with a grunt.  
“I’ll take that as a yes.”  
“Take it however you want.”  
There was a brief pause as Ellie examined the room. Her eyes lingered on the mattresses that lay on the ground.  
“I guess this is where the assholes sleep. I mean slept.”  
Moving on outside, the sight of a burning pile of bodies welcomed us. It stank of burnt flesh. I thought the smell down stairs was bad, but this smell had the other one beat. This time my gag reflex was forceful. I had to prevent myself from actually throwing up.   
This wasn’t something I saw or smelt regularly. it was mostly new to me as it was Ellie. I felt as if Joel was judging me. But I would slap him upside the head if he said anything.  
Ellie shielded her eyes from the sun as she groaned. “I don’t think these guys were infected.”  
“It don’t matter. Let’s keep moving.”  
Leading the way, Joel walked up some more stairs. We were right round roof level. Out in the distance, we could see a yellow bridge. Joel pointed to it.  
“Alright, there’s the bridge: that’s our way out of here.”  
Ellie didn’t even stop to look, she was vaulting herself over the railing. She landed on a roof below us.  
“Hey, Ellie! Slow down. Wait for us.” Joel yelled after her. He shook his head as he looked at me. I cracked a smile. I got a scoff in return.


End file.
